LONDON: For some bizarre reason, it was felt that the excellent British series “Unforgiven” needed a Hollywood remake — so in swept German director Nora Fingscheidt and current Netflix darling Sandra Bullock to transplant the action from Yorkshire to Seattle, and whittle three intense episodes into a single movie.
Bullock plays Ruth Slater, a woman leaving prison after serving 20 years for the murder of a police sheriff. Her parole officer, Vincent (Rob Morgan, star of Netflix’s “Daredevil,” “The Punisher” and various other Marvel TV shows), wants her to keep her head down, get a job and absolutely — categorically — not to reach out to her grown-up baby sister.
“The Unforgivable” is on Netflix. (Supplied)
She is also certainly — definitely — not to revisit their old house, now owned by lawyer John (played by Vincent D’Onofrio, star of “Daredevil”) and his wife Liz (Viola Davis).
Ruth finds work, and strikes up a friendship with good-natured Blake (Jon Bernthal, star of “Daredevil” and “The Punisher”), but she simply cannot help herself from seeking out sister Katie (Aisling Franciosi), putting in motion a chain of events that brings Ruth and all the Netflix Marvel TV alumni together in an improbable final act.
Bullock plays Ruth Slater, a woman leaving prison after serving 20 years for the murder of a police sheriff. (Supplied)
Bullock, to her credit, gives the part of Ruth the full blue-collar everyman treatment. Her scenes with D’Onofrio and Bernthal offer a glimpse of what happens when such talented character actors are brought together, but “The Unforgivable” gets far too lost in its own seriousness to give the cast much time to flesh out their roles. The excellent Davis, for example, gets just a few minutes of screen time.
Where the original ITV series was superbly paced, doling out reveals across the three episodes, “The Unforgivable” spends half its runtime reminding us how bleak and serious the world is, before rushing through its overwrought finale to a conclusion that will leave audiences feeling a little underwhelmed, and not a little incredulous.
