The unforgiveable opens well. It opens in an interesting way with so much visual action without words as it takes us through a series of scenes like a reel of short visual outbursts which at first appear to be disjointed until it finally rests on a girl walking, further morphing into Sandra Bullock, who plays the led role as Ruth Slater; a woman who gets out of prison after 20 years for murdering a cop. Her parole office is a guy called Vince.
Noteworthy cast names to mention include Viola Davis, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jon Bernthal. This film was released in 2021 and directed by Nora Fingscheidt.
Ruth Slater had to go to prison because it was assumed she shot the cop after their father's suicide. They had to be evicted from the house they lived in and the sheriff, a kind man came to do just that. He was a kind man but unfortunately, Ruth panicked a lot and threatened to shoot the men if they came any closer. She had no intentions of doing so, but with all the commotion, her little sister decided that this was what needed to be done and went on to shoot the Sherriff once he walked through the door. Because of how this scene was shot with no other witnesses and with Katie's or Katherine's fainting spell right after, it is clear that everyone would assume that Ruth Slater and not her five year old sister shot the Sherrif.
This film is a powerful story about love and fierce loyalty of an older sibling who finds herself playing the role of a mother to her five year old sister. We know this is how their past relationship was because of the flashbacks from Ruth's side even though they'd been separated for two decades. Katherine has no recollection of her sister as after the murder, she was put in foster care to live with a good and nurturing family even though her life was marked by traumatic remembrance of events and meds to help with that.
Her adoptive family do not want her to have contact with Ruth who find a pro bono lawyer and kind helper in the person of Vincent D'Onofrio. They never showed her the letters Ruth sent while in prison and you can't blame them because no one knew the real truth about the event. Not only is one life upturned by the traumatic events from the past, but multiple lives and we see this when we watch how the now grown sons of the Sherriff want revenge for their father's death. Thankfully, they do not succeed.
As I was watching, I saw how cruel the world was to Sandra Bullock's character. She's a phenomenal actress. I broke down twice to cry with her; the first time when this man she worked with as part of her parole terms leaves her because he learns about her supposed past and the second when she speaks to Viola Davis(her lawyer's wife in this film. They happen to have bought the house where the tragedy occurred) who speaks to her harshly and accuses of being no good for anyone. It is here that Sandra Bullock repeatedly says "she was only five" over and over again and breaks down. It is also in this scene where we hear the actual truth of what happened and marvel at the great strength she had to endure so much coldness to ensure her little sister had a better life and would never remember the horror of what happened.
When I was halfway in this film, I had a complaint about how long it took to build up but after those scenes I relented and I'm now totally biased because it has become dear to my heart and I really can't judge the artistic decisions of the director too harshly. It's such a beautiful film of sacrifice and I totally recommend.
I will rate it a 9/10.
Cheers!