Film Review: "Forgiven" (2016)

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Another mild Christian movie is presented to an unsuspecting public, as many faith film producers wring their hands and wonder why their entertainment is not connecting on a larger scale.

James (Casey Fuller) gets in a fight with his girlfriend, shooting her. Now armed, he runs and finds himself hiding out in a church with a pastor (Steve Flanigan) and his two daughters Elizabeth (Jenn Gotzon) and Naomi (Allee Sutton Hethcoat). James takes the trio hostage, and police lieutenant Morgan (Kevin Sorbo) arrives. Cell phone negotiating commences, as Morgan fights to keep his officers back, and Elizabeth starts telling James about God's capacity to forgive.

I honestly wanted to like this film, its heart seems to be in the right place, but it isn't even eighty minutes long, and there is absolutely no tension. Flenory is saddled with way too many lines about "ending this thing" to the point where it was unintentionally funny, more so when other characters mentioned "ending this." There seems to be little research into actual hostage negotiations, and it was frustrating to watch the production flounder with a small budget and uninspired script. The two stand-out performances are from Gotzon and Fuller, their scenes together generate a small amount of drama, and the film makers should have had more of that, instead of Morgan and Flenory's character pointing at the same diagram of the church for the hundredth time while background characters smile and pretend to talk on their phones.

"Forgiven" falls into the same trap that a lot of Christian films fall into. They are in such a hurry to get to the message, they forget to give the audience a reason to go along for the journey.

Stats:
(2016) 79 min. (3/10)
-Directed by Kevan Otto
-Written by Kevan Otto & Lloyd S. Wagner
-Cast: Kevin Sorbo, Jenn Gotzon, Casey Fuller, Allee Sutton Hethcoat, Steve Flanigan, Reegus Flenory, Kelsey Sanders, Renee LeeA Horton, David G. Baker, Glenn Cartwright, Marie A. Garton, Ben Graham, Maggie Schneider
-(US: TV-14)-(UK: 12)-(Au: M)- Mild physical violence, mild gun violence, some adult situations
-Media Viewed: streaming