There isn’t a single member of the cast of The Unforgivable of whom I am not a big fan. And I like crime stories. And I’m more in movie mode lately, as opposed to series mode. So what could go wrong?
Sandra Bullock, “playing against type,” as they say, has just been released from prison after serving 20 years for killing a Sheriff who’d come to take Sandy and her much younger sister away from their home.
Bullock meets up with a stern but empathetic parole officer who sets her up in a dingy Seattle halfway house and a job in a fish processing plant. No wonder there isn’t a hint of happiness at her newfound freedom.
THE UNFORGIVABLE: SANDRA BULLOCK (PRODUCER) as RUTH SLATER. CR: KIMBERLEY FRENCH/NETFLIX 
THE UNFORGIVABLE. (L-R) SANDRA BULLOCK (PRODUCER) as RUTH SLATER, ROB MORGAN as VINCENT CROSS. CR. COURTESY OF NETFLIX.
The first thing Bullock, as Ruth Slater, is told not to do is to try to contact her sister or her sister’s foster parents – but she goes one further, enlisting the help of an attorney, Vincent D’Onofrio, to help facilitate such a meeting. By the way, in one of a half dozen undeveloped plot threads, D’Onofrio and his wife, played by a wasted Viola Davis, just happen to live in the house that was the scene of Ruth’s crime twenty years earlier.
There’s also a potential romance, or at least deep friendship, that briefly involves Bullock and the great Jon Bernthal that is quickly dropped on the floor and forgotten.
And then there’s the subplot of two brothers who are the surviving sons of the aforementioned Sheriff. They decide to plot revenge – why should their father’s killer go free after what she did? Alas, that too doesn’t amount to as much as it seems it will.
That Time Sandra Bullock’s Mom Called Me
Any single one of these ideas could have made the film more interesting if the film had explored in deeper detail. Instead, the film carries on episodically, leaving behind the ideas like breadcrumbs left to dissolve in the Seattle rain.
This may be because this story was originally a UK series, and it probably should have stayed a series on this side of the pond, too. When it moves to the small screen on Netflix on December 10th, I suspect it will do okay as a weeknight watch with lowered expectations.
I love Sandra Bullock. I get that her character is haunted by her past and internalizes her emotions. But on camera her performance plays as if she’s in a catatonic state. For those hoping this would be an award-worthy role, I’m afraid they’ll be disappointed.
Hard to believe two Oscar-winners (Bullock and Davis), a newer, exciting face on the scene (Bernthal) and veterans like Richard Thomas and D’Onofrio could all be so underutilized, but it happens.
You just have to forgive and move on.
The Unforgivable is currently in theatres and will move to Netflix starting December 10th.
