Nora Fingscheidt directed The Unforgivable, a 2021 drama based on the 2009 British miniseries Unforgiven. The screenwriters consisted of Peter Craig, Hillary Seitz, and Courtenay Miles. Lead Sandra Bullock stars as Ruth Slater, a woman who attempts to rebuild her life after being incarcerated for 20 years for a violent crime and reconnect with her sister, who was a child when Ruth was imprisoned and has been separated and relocated for much of her life.
Given the disarmingly tender nature of the subjects and the Rubik’s cube of emotions the film evokes, one might attempt to speak of the central performance and the offering of the film as a tribute to the sister, and in doing so, perhaps adumbrate the dimensions of mourning, for both Ruth and the audience.
Plot Summary
Ruth Slater, after 20 years in a correctional facility, is released. She leaves with a small bag of belongings and the emotional baggage associated with the crime for which she has been imprisoned. She has served her time, yet Ruth encounters a world that is unappreciative of her presence. Ruth is confronted with the reality that she is still judged solely based on the crime.
Her main priority is locating her younger sister, Katie. Ruth was imprisoned when Katie was just a young girl. The two were separated, and Katie was adopted and raised without any knowledge of her past. Now a teenager who has no memories of Ruth or of the early years they spent together, Katie has a present and a past that is seemingly normal with her adoptive parents and her sister, Emily.
In her attempts to build some semblance of normalcy, Ruth first sought employment in a seafood processing and later in a carpentry shop. Working in the carpentry shop brought her even more conflict with the people and the coworkers around her, most of whom regarded her with hostility and suspicion. This is a testimony to the phenomenon of the ‘difficult history’ in the workforce; the culture of distrust and hostility that surrounds ex-prisoners is one of the most significant barriers to successful ‘normal’ reintegration.
Ruth later returned to her childhood home. It was now occupied by a married couple, John and Liz Ingram. John, who is a lawyer and learned of Ruth’s situation and her quest to find Katie, extends his help. Liz, however, lacks trust and thinks that Ruth’s past is too radical to be disregarded. The tension between them mirrors the tension in social discourse between the conflicts and the broader culture of forgiveness.
Ruth, in the meantime, attempts to write to Katie in some letters that Katie’s adoptive parents block to safeguard Katie from the reality. Later, Katie’s adoptive sister, Emily, finds the letters and feels the need to assist.
The story shifts to a sequence of flashbacks and reveals that Ruth’s life-changing moment was not the thing that was assumed. Ruth took the blame for something that she did not fully commit, even though it was out of love for her younger sister in an attempt to protect her. This new layer of complexity changes the way one views Ruth and shifts the story’s emotional intensity.
During the climax of the film, Emily, who is in danger from a revenge seeker, is mistaken for Katie. Ruth intervenes to protect her and in doing so, demonstrates Emily’s bravery and selflessness. This moment becomes the emotional turning point of the film in that it shows others that Ruth is not just someone with a difficult past, but someone who is willing to do the right thing.
Ruth and Katie meet again in the last scene. There are no lengthy speeches, but once again, a shared silence hints that the sisters have led vastly different lives, but are still joined in at least part and in their history, forever intertwined.
Characters and Performances
Ruth Slater (Sandra Bullock): A guilt-ridden, reconciling, and obstinate woman. Bullock wonderfully captures the aesthetic in Slater’s portrayal of the character with silence and a psychological blend of strength, vulnerability, and converging guilt.
Katie Malcolm (Aisling Franciosi): As Ruth’s younger sister, she is adopted, awaits her new family, and lives the character’s life with no sense of the parti malcolm. She is the embodiment of lost hope and innocence, making her eventual encounter with Ruth one of the most emotionally traumatic experiences in the narrative.
John Ingram (Vincent D’Onofrio): A lawyer residing in Slater’s old home, he understands her in most practical ways and offers her legal advice while assisting in her quest of rediscovering her daughter, Katie.
Liz Ingram (Viola Davis): John’s wife poses moral challenges to Ruth concerning Katie. She introduces the most psychological tension to the film with her afflicted sense of unresolved tension juxtaposed with her husband’s lack of emotional disposition.
Emily Malcolm (Emma Nelson): Katie’s adoptive sister and the bridge of compassion that connects Ruth and Katie, despite the simultaneous presence of fear.
Ruth’s path to rehabilitation is also illustrated through a cast of supporting characters that include her probation officer, her coworkers, and people from the past and present.
PHP Themes and Reflections
- Redemption
The film asks the question of whether someone can be redeemable in the eyes of society and in someone’s own eyes. Ruth’s journey is trying to convince herself and others that people are greater than their past actions.
- Family and Love
The Unforgivable is centered on the love between two sisters. Ruth’s quest to recover and protect Katie reinforces the idea of family love and the extraordinary lengths to which it can compel someone.
- Forgiveness and Judgment
The film gives the impression that the characters balance the love and the guilt of Ruth’s return to the world. They pity and judge her simultaneously.
- Second Chances
The film insists on Ruth’s right to fall and rise as society’s stigma shifts. She confronts the world with a smile that insists on her existence.
- Truth and Understanding
The film offers a sequence of the hidden tones that Ruth plays to foretell her past, and the audience is invited to see their own truths that Ruth has hidden from them.
Reception and Style
Critical acclaim was directed at performances with special mention made of Sandra Bullock as Ruth. In portrayals as emotionally restrained as Bullock’s, nuanced yet poignant performances, it is often difficult to render visible the inner pain, and in the case of Ruth, the agonizing determination as well. The muted tones of the cinematography within quiet, dying spaces, where the cinematography ceased, was suggestive of Ruth’s encumbering, tortured consciousness in constant conflict with herself as she tried to maintain emotional balance.
Some critics described the pacing as deliberate, and at times, as slow and depressing, yet, emotional authenticity and humane compassionate treatment of the difficult, painful, and sensitive issues within the film was primarily acknowledged by the audience.
Conclusion
The Unforgivable tells a deeply human story of loss and healing, and, obliquely, the powerful theme of the journey to forgiveness. It strips away the grand dramatic flourishes in favor of the small, human moments that most powerfully advance the story. Ruth Slater’s quiet and barely visible inner strength and relentless determination illustrates that hope can be found, even in the most desperate and bleak of situations, and that the power and depth of redemption is to be found, though it is a relentlessly difficult, if not agonizing, struggle.
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