With a title like The Unforgivable (2021), you have movie that is tailor made to interest a practicing Catholic.  One of the sacraments of our Faith is Reconciliation, which means, with a truly contrite heart, nothing is “unforgivable” in the eyes of God.  Along with His forgiveness, we must also forgive ourselves and each other.  Still, I am already getting ahead of myself as this is a big topic and a film like this one demands a full discussion of it.  As you read the rest, particularly the synopsis, understand how difficult this is for many.

Ruth Slater (Sandra Bullock) is one of the many that society deems as The Unforgivable, being a convicted criminal serving a prison sentence.  However, this is the day of her release, having served time for murdering a sheriff, Sheriff Mac Whelan (W. Earl Brown), getting out early on good behavior.  Since the circumstances of her incarceration are treated in a series of flashbacks, I am going to discuss them now for clarity’s sake.  With the death of her mother, and subsequent suicide of her father, Ruth had been raising her much younger sister, Katherine “Katie” Slater (Neli Kastrinos), from the time the little one was an infant.  Being ill-equipped to be a parent despite her immense love for Katie, Ruth does not react well when the authorities come to evict them and take Katie.  When Ruth refuses to leave, Sheriff Whelan is called to speak to the distraught woman, even offering to take the sisters into his own home.  Ruth is anxious, threatening to shoot whoever enters the house.  However, when Sheriff Whelan bursts through the door, it is five-year-old Katie who pulls the trigger.  The little girl has no memory of this, being traumatized, and it is Ruth who bravely takes the blame and does the time.  On the same day as her parole, the now mid-twenties Katie Malcolm (Aisling Franciosi) gets into a car accident that requires hospitalization.  Upon coming home to her adopted family, her younger sister, Emily Malcolm (Emma Nelson), frets over the injured Katie.  Aside from the physical injuries, Emily is wondering if the trauma has brought up any other memories.  Katie, again, has no recollection of her life before her adoption outside of scattered images that tend to come up in nightmares.  She also protests that she is fine and the matter is dropped for the moment.  As for Ruth, her parole officer, Vincent Cross (Rob Morgan), after going over the terms of her freedom, drops her off at the seedy boarding house where she is to live.  Shadowing these movements is Keith Whelan (Thomas Guiry), the son of Sheriff Whelan.  It is his opinion that Ruth got off too easily, and says so to his brother, Steve Whelan (Will Pullen). Keith wants vengeance, but Steve believes that idea is crazy.  Thus, for now, Keith stalks Ruth.  There is not much for him to see.  After being rejected from a promised carpentry job, her registered trade, she takes a position cleaning and cutting fish.  In the course of her wanderings, forced by the unreliable Seattle bus system, she notices a community center being built and talks her way into being the one doing the construction after noticing the shoddy craftsmanship.  In one of her free moments, she takes a walk out to the home she used to occupy with Katie.  The current residents are the Ingram family, and the patriarch and lawyer, John Ingram (Vincent D’Onofrio), comes out to greet Ruth.  Her excuse is that she had once done work on the house, and the friendly John invites her in to see the changes made by the Ingrams.  While driving her to the bus station, though, he can tell that something is not right with her.  At this point, she tells him part of the story, about how she had been in jail and forced to be legally separated from Katie.  He ruminates on the harshness of the system and offers to help however he can.  Being an attorney, it does not take him long to figure out who she is, and he hesitates since she had not been completely truthful.  Speaking of hesitating, Keith’s constant badgering that Steve should do something convinces the brother to seek out Ruth.  Steve finds her at the community center and begins talking, asking about her parents.  When she says they are dead and that one must move on, it tells him that she is not remorseful.  Secretly staying behind, he goes through her belongings, gets Katie’s name, and follows Ruth some more.  As for Ruth, her persistence with John eventually gets her a meeting with Katie’s adoptive parents, Michael (Richard Thomas) and Rachel Malcolm (Linda Emond).  Michael is less enthusiastic about confronting Ruth, seeing only a murderer in her, and their discussion ends with shouting.  Meanwhile, Emily, who had overheard her parents arguing about Ruth, finds the letters that Ruth had written Katie but had never given to their foster child.  Without Michael and Rachel’s knowledge, Emily reaches out to Ruth.  They reminisce a little about Katie, and before departing, Emily tells Ruth about Katie’s upcoming piano rehearsal.  Wanting to go but not sure of the legal ramifications, Ruth tries to reach John but he is out of town.  Desperate, she treks to his house and encounters his wife, Liz Ingram (Viola Davis), who is not keen on having a former inmate around her family.  It is at this point that the series of flashbacks we are shown catch up with the narrative, with Ruth’s taking the blame for the death touching Liz.  As such, she agrees to go with Ruth to the recital.  However, on the way Ruth gets a call from Steve saying that he has kidnapped Katie.  If Ruth wants her sister, she must meet him alone.  As it turns out, Steve has unwittingly taken Emily.  While Liz calls the police, Ruth confronts Steve.  What calms him is her discussing how kind was his father, all the while shielding Emily.  Eventually, Ruth gets Emily out, Steve is arrested, and we end with an embrace between Katie and Ruth.

I am happy that Ruth got to hug her sister at the end of The Unforgivable, but my heart hurt for her throughout the rest.  If there is one thing Vincent makes clear to her soon after her release, it is that the label of “cop-killer” is one with which she is going to have to get comfortable.  It is suggested that is the reason for her first carpentry job falling through, it is why Keith is able to get information on her from the police, and lit eads to her being beat up by a co-worker at the fish factory whose dad was a cop.  It reminds me of the things we often think about doing to people who are guilty of one heinous crime or another.  There is the stereotype you see here of people who “back the blue” automatically, no matter the circumstances.  I have also heard of those who want to do the most awful thing possible to those who commit rape, either victimizing their peers or children.  The notion is that there is no punishment harsh enough for those deemed guilty of such crimes.  Put simply, the family and friends of the victims want vengeance, not justice.  Of course, Christianity preaches the alternative.  In the Bible, Jesus scandalizes the establishment by dining with sinners and tax collectors.  When asked about His actions, Jesus replies in Matthew 9:12, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.”  If we are to follow Jesus, as we are further called to do, how can we square our desire for bloody retribution with that calling?  What is even more remarkable about today’s example is that she did not actually perform the act for which she was jailed.  Clearly, the experience wounded her, and she behaves in ways that are the result of her time behind bars.  At the same time, she is heroic.  When she is attacked at the factory, she does the most righteous thing possible by essentially turning the other cheek, or basically not fighting back.  Those who assume that she is nothing but a cop-killer would probably retaliate in anger if in a similar position, which is understandable.  My point is that the way Ruth is treated for most of the movie is sad and shameful.  She is one of God’s creatures like the rest of us, but one with a terrible burden unfairly placed on her.  Jesus would not treat her as many do, no matter the circumstances, and I suggest that we remember this and do the same.

The experiences that Ruth goes through in The Unforgivable are difficult to watch.  They are also important, and I wish more people would see this movie.  Pain is seldom so personal that we are alone in how we feel, and films like this one help us realize how human we all are.