The Forgiving
2020 · Drama
Skip this one—heavy grief drama with an untested cast and a premise that treads dangerously close to exploitation territory without the artistic pedigree to pull it off. The setup is bleak and the execution sounds more like a well-intentioned indie that loses itself in its own melancholy.
Plot
Avi Brickman is a middle-aged man still broken from the tragic death of his eight-year-old daughter five years earlier. When he is suddenly fired from his job, a thin threaded lifeline to his shattered existence, he decides to kill himself in the very home where the accident occurred. However, when he arrives at the isolated house in the woods, he finds a woman and her young daughter taking shelter there. During one long night, in his confused state of mind, he is haunted by the ghosts of his past as he confronts his guilt and pain to a cathartic and unexpected conclusion.
Director: David J. Stern
Cast: John Gerard Healy, Jenna Kuna, Kathy Sanders, Emily Classen
