Review of Forgiven (2011) by Paula S — 10 Aug 2018

Lame, canned dialogue and some not very believable western accents. Trite religious subplot. I liked the acting of the sheriff, Luther the blacksmith, and somewhat Kincaid.

There is a scene near the beginning where Charlie throws a rock at Kincaid, and he chases her down and catches her and sits her down.

Kincaid says ï¿ 1/2Now why you chucking rocks at me?ï¿ 1/2Â?

Charlie says ï¿ 1/2I don't like you!ï¿ 1/2Â?

Kincaid says "You don't even know me.".

Charlie says "I know you yelled at me yesterday when all I was trying to do was help out.".

They must have cut a scene out because he went straight to jail and she peeked from behind a tree, and never said anything. And where was her mother?? Never seen in the movie, never mentioned except when Luther (who I think is very hot) says her father used to beat on her and her mother. The scene at the end showed Kincaid and his new girlfriend going off with this girl. Didn't she have a home? Were they going to adopt her?

Emma, the girlfriend (his wife in real life) is always wearing perfect makeup, including heavy lipstick and liner. In 1878. Really, now.

Lots of the lines were dubbed over as if the sound was awful and rather than fix and reshoot, they just fixed in the studio. The daughters of the old woman (one of them named Autry, uh-huh) were horrible actors and just stood there grinning like idiots except when one of them was screaming near the end. WHY would she stay out on the street after people started shooting to be grabbed by the villain?

The old lady, character name I can't find, first talked with Kincaid about church, and said Matilda somebody was singing bass, ï¿ 1/2but it really should be a man.ï¿ 1/2Â? So he walks into the saloon on Sunday morning and lo and behold, the saloon is closed on Sunday and they're holding church inside. He's cajoled into staying and they start a hymn....and there's Luther, singing BASS. And he's been there for years. Is the old lady senile?

The preacher is a totally implausible character for 1878 in the west. He has this crazy squeaky voice and talks like he's in a revival. He quotes Romans 15 and takes it out of context. It refers to strong and weak in faith, and he's pretending it's about helping peole who can't work. That's all fine, but the writers apparently are using it as a guilt trip to preach directly to the selfishness of Kincaid.

The sheriff was a good actor, but every time he confronts a bad guy, his old bullet injury acts up and he hunches over in pain. He does this at a critical moment at the end when he's confronting the villain with Kincaid. LAME!! But Kincaid saves the day. And rescues the girl that's too stupid to get out of the way of guns.

The girl who does Charlie was an okay actor, but she was so cute and her expressions were so natural, I wish she'd get famous. She'd be grown up now. Fewer freckles. :(.