My experience with The Unforgivable went like this: I saw Sandra Bullock in the trailer. I had an hour to kill and a paper to procrastinate. I thought, “why not give it a try?” And then I wept intensely for a couple of hours.

Don’t get me wrong — it is a good movie. The story was gripping and well told. Bullock’s acting was nothing short of incredible (as per usual). I was absorbed and impressed. I cried because I am an older sister with a lot of emotions and this movie was my Kryptonite.

The Unforgivable stars Sandra Bullock and is dark and dramatic story of Ruth Slater (Bullock). Ruth is  struggling to find her way in the world after spending twenty years in jail due to her conviction of a violent crime. No one wants to hire a convict, and she has a strict regimen to follow to avoid violating her parole. She finds herself outcast and frowned upon by everyone in society, despite her many qualifications and skills.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, she’s also frantically trying to find her sister Katie. Katie was under her care twenty years ago, before Ruth was imprisoned, and Ruth is desperate to know if her sister is all right. Unfortunately, her efforts are futile in the face of the red tape and rules of the foster care system. 

There is a lot to be said about this film. The entire cast give fantastic performances. The story is a searing indictment of the current prison system and the way it destroys its inmates’ lives. The movie points out the flaws in the foster care system. 

I feel ill-qualified to talk about those things, so I’m going to focus on what I believe is the heart of this movie: the nurturing nature of humanity. The Unforgivable is tense, bleak, suspenseful, but I think that despite its awareness of the fact that every person is deeply flawed it has a streak of optimism. 

No one in this movie is very fond of the prison system and the foster care system. In fact, we see them tear people apart — from one another and from the inside out. However, the people within those systems can (and do) take care of each other. 

Ruth finds that although there are people that refuse to help her, there are also people that sacrifice their own wellbeing to help her out. A coworker buys her a meal. A former adversary drives her to a concert. Her parole officer does everything he can to help her find work. 

Some people don’t care about you, but a lot of people do: this is what The Unforgivable has to say about the world. I really like that. It’s easy to forget that we’re all just doing our best, and yet that is overwhelmingly true. Looking for the “good ones” in a world that seems full to the brim with bad apples is hard work, but The Unforgivable suggests that it is worth it.