THE FORGIVEN (Cert 18, 117 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd, available now via Premium Video On Demand rental, available from November 21 on Amazon/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, available from December 12 on DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £19.99, Thriller/Romance)
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain, Matt Smith, Caleb Landry Jones, Christopher Abbott, Ismael Kanater, Said Taghmaoui, Omar Ghazaoui.
RICHARD Galloway (Matt Smith) and his wine-guzzling partner Dally (Caleb Landry Jones) invite a coterie of odious, privileged friends to their villa in the Moroccan desert for a weekend of lavish revelry and self-congratulation.
British doctor David Henninger (Ralph Fiennes) and his American writer wife Jo (Jessica Chastain) get lost en route from Tangier.
He blames her map navigational skills. "It's Morocco not Milton Keynes!" she seethes.
They are immersed in another argument when young fossil seller Driss (Omar Ghazaoui) steps into the desert road in front of their speeding car to ply his wares.
The Henningers arrive late at Richard's soiree, claiming the boy's death was an accident.
Driss's father Abdellah (Ismael Kanater) materialises with an English-speaking associate (Said Taghmaoui) to claim his son's body.
The grieving patriarch insists David should witness the teenager's burial and the pompous Brit reluctantly obliges.
Adapted from Lawrence Osborne's best-selling 2012 novel, The Forgiven doesn't grant absolution to any of the vile bodies that congregate in the Moroccan desert.
White privilege and western superiority trump justice and writer-director John Michael McDonagh invites us to seethe with disbelief when David ruefully suggests Driss's death can be swatted from memory because "the kid is a nobody".
Anchored by a formidable lead performance from Fiennes as an acid-tongued, high-functioning alcoholic, this slow-burning morality tale cranks up tension as grief collides head-on with guilt.
Characters are unlikeable by design but it's still possible to feel fleeting pangs of pity as McDonagh impales his loathsome creations on hooks and lets them wriggle.
Rating: 3/5
WEDNESDAY (8 episodes, streaming from November 23 exclusively on Netflix, Adventure/Fantasy/Thriller)
WHEN the creepy and kooky, mysterious and spooky characters from Charles Addams' subversive cartoons materialise on big and small screens, eldest child Wednesday gleefully scene steals with her macabre escapades.
It's fitting that the only daughter of Gomez and Morticia Addams commandeers her own eight-part series and woos Tim Burton behind the camera for his eagerly awaited debut directing a live-action TV series.
Resourceful teenager Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) bids farewell to her parents (Luis Guzman, Catherine Zeta-Jones) and younger brother Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) to attend Nevermore Academy under the watchful eye of Principal Larissa Weems (Gwendoline Christie).
As well as navigating the usual growing pains, Wednesday hopes to hone her burgeoning psychic abilities and solve a murder mystery that stretches back quarter of a century.
A killing spree strikes fear into the local town and Sheriff Galpin (Jamie McShane) may require Wednesday's unique assistance to unmask the diabolical culprit.
