John Michael McDonagh’s mostly entertaining adaptation of Laurence Osborne’s novel offers an unusual mix of provocation and penance
![The Forgiven review – Chastain and Fiennes light up darkly comic thriller](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/eddd31be773eefc5bb2a04cd07190b9ccea26154/0_67_1860_1116/master/1860.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctcmV2aWV3LTMucG5n&enable=upscale&s=ff1a337faaed91f3d22ced33ac02a67f)
There’s an unusual, intoxicating air to writer-director John Michael McDonagh’s latest, and splashiest, film The Forgiven, a wrong-footing combination of crime thriller, dark
comedy and shaggy hangout movie. It’s a strange watch – unsure of itself at times, hugely, bullishly confident at others – but one that’s never less than curiously compelling, a mostly convincing return to form after 2016’s underwhelming War on Everyone.
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Toronto film festival