Netflix Crime Mystery Gives A-List Actress Her Most Unique Role
The Unforgivable is a far cry from what we usually see Sandra Bullock in, and it’s a great vehicle for her more serious side. While Bird Box was more of a horror film, this one is gritty, troubling, and deeply emotional. How can you hate Sandra Bullock in anything?
You can’t, and that’s why you have to watch this movie.
Folding In The Details Through Flashbacks
The Unforgivable opens with Ruth Slater (Sandra Bullock) being released from prison after 20 years. She’d been convicted of murder for killing the town sheriff in a showdown at her home, where she was refusing to obey an eviction notice. Her five-year-old sister, Katie (Aisling Franciosi), was present at the time, and now Ruth is determined to reunite with her.
We see all of this through Ruth’s flashbacks and Katie’s blurred traumatic memories.
Katie’s Vague Recollections
We meet Katie now, a budding musician at college, as she’s involved in a car accident on the day of Ruth’s release. As she recovers from her injuries, her parents, Michael and Linda (Richard Thomas and Linda Edmond), quietly discuss whether they were right to keep Katie’s past from her. Katie’s younger adopted sister, Emily (Emma Nelson), suspects something is up when she hears her parents whispering.
The unforgivable act is something both Ruth and Katie still deal with in their own ways.
The Revenge Plot
The Unforgivable cuts to a scene with the sons of the murdered sheriff, now twenty years older. The Sheriff’s older son, Keith (Thomas Guiry), swears revenge on Ruth now that she has been released from prison, but his younger brother, Steve (Will Pullen) tells his brother to leave it alone. Still, he finds Ruth at one of her two jobs, on a construction site, and fishes for information.
Ruth doesn’t recognize him, of course, and she makes some dismissive remarks about the past being in the past, completely unrelated to the murder. Steve silently seethes and begins plotting revenge as well.
Trying To Make Right
Meanwhile, Ruth tries to locate her sister by visiting her old house, which has been completely renovated and now houses a married couple, John and Liz Ingram (Vincent D’Onofrio and Viola Davis), and their two teenagers. They invite her in to take a look around, and John offers to give Ruth a ride back to the bus. When she finds out he’s an attorney, she asks him for help, and he agrees to look for her sister.
An Intense Buildup To A Stunning Conclusion
In the culmination of events in The Unforgivable, we watch as separate pieces of this puzzle fall into place.
How was the sheriff actually murdered? Why didn’t the adoptive parents tell Katie about her past? Will Ruth find her sister?
And will Steve get his revenge?
Stream The Unforgivable On Netflix Today
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One by one, the pieces fall into place, and it makes for a brilliant unfolding of a plot line and narrative arc. Sandra Bullock is truly a gifted actress who can pull off virtually any role, and the ending of this film is a shocking one.
The Unforgivable brings so many complex parts together to make a complete whole, and honors the great acting of so many amazing actors, in small parts and large. Stream it now on Netflix.
