Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain, Caleb Landry Jones, Said Taghmaoui, Ismael Kanater, Christopher Abbott, and Matt Smith
Distributor: Universal Pictures International
Runtime: 117 mins. Reviewed in Jul 2022
Reviewer: Peter W Sheehan
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This British-American movie explores the aftermath of a road accident that affected persons who attended a weekend house party at a rich person’s villa in the mountains of Morocco.
Not to be confused with a 2017 film of the same name, this movie is based on a 2012 novel by British author, Lawrence Osborne. The film is loosely inspired by a true story.
Driving from Casablanca to a wedding party, after holidaying in the Sahara, two wealthy married Londoners, David (Fiennes) and Jo (Chastain) Henninger, motor to a rich estate, high in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. David bickers with Jo about directions, and he is inebriated. While both are arguing, their car collides at night with a local teenager who is killed. They load his body in their car, and continue on their way to their weekend party.
Caleb Landry Jones features in the movie, following his award-winning performance at Cannes, as Best Actor in the Australian film, Nitram (2021). In this film, he is the partner in a committed male relationship.
Jo and David are struggling to save their marriage, and are on the edge of divorce. David is an uncaring alcoholic who is racially intolerant, and capable of viciousness, and Jo is on the edge of alcoholism, takes drugs, and is over-eager to please. The party is being held at an estate owned by an eccentric gay couple (Matt Smith, and Caleb Landry Jones), and Richard (Matt Smith) has organised the party. David and Jo arrive and the body of the person they have killed lies in the backseat of their car. They want to hide what they have done, while those attending the party are confused about what to do. When Jo and David arrive, the people are partying hard, and they know the accident was caused by David’s reckless driving. The Police arrive to investigate the boy’s death, and then the boy’s father, Abdellah Taheri (Kanater), arrives, seeking justice.
The film is a dark drama, that wrestles with the intricate morality of what has happened. The accident affects the lives of Westerners and local Muslims at the party differently. The boy’s father wants David to recognise tradition and come with him when he buries his son. David would prefer to pay the boy’s father off to alleviate any feelings of regret, and he considers the mishap an inconvenience. The accident accentuates the rift between Jo and David. David is pressured to face the dead’s boy’s family, which sets up consequences he finds difficult to handle. Jo gets drunk while David is gone, and spends her time flirting and having sex with rich partygoers, like Tom Day (Abbott). On return, David knows he has lost meaning for his wife, and she for him. Jo takes drugs to keep her energy alive, and David’s bigotry infuriates the local Muslims.
David and Jo are morally ill-equipped in different ways to deal with the consequences of their actions. The film reveals angry clashes that pit indigenous culture against what wealthy Western foreigners do and think, especially when indigenous land is being used for self-indulgent purposes, and cultural resentment surfaces tensely and so easily.
The film is a bleak account of racial ignorance and guilty behaviour, and dramatically targets the insensitivity of colonialism, ignorant white-privilege, and cultural conflict between Western and Eastern cultures. The film is about people behaving badly, and is rough adult fare. Its moral messages need to be heard, and the film’s style and plot-line development are a warning to young-adult viewing. The movie adopts a final view about morality that aims to be consonant with the moral principles of Truth and Reconciliation. It demonstrates competent scripting, fine photography, direction, and acting, but delivers its messages bluntly and hedonistically. The felt nature of forgiveness, regret and reparation is communicated in all its complexity in the film’s confronting and powerful final scene.
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