Movie Review Exhibiting Forgiveness, broken present with André Holland

La'Ron (John Earl Jelks) cleans rims for the owner of a liquor store, drinks what's left of water from bottles thrown in the trash: when a thief beats the owner, he defends him, even though he is later beaten by the assailant.

His confusing life is different from that of his son Tarrell Rodin (André Holland), a well-known American painter who lives with his wife, singer-songwriter Aisha (Andra Day), and young son Jermaine. Tarrell's artwork delves into the anguish of his youth, almost oblivious to his father. An unexpected visit from La'Ron - a recovering drug addict - throws him into a state of confusion; La'Ron desperately tries to reconcile with him.

The film Exhibiting Forgiveness - released in the United States - suffers from a certain slowness, probably due to the directorial sharpness of Titus Kaphar in his debut behind the camera: Kaphar paints, reconfigures and regenerates history to include African-American subjects. His works include Behind the Myth of Benevolence and The Vesper Project. Kaphar almost seems to want to recreate painterly stillness in moving images, creating work that is at times alienating. 

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What seem like descriptive pauses - like playing with an old friend in a pool without water - take on additional meaning here, almost a projection of one's own thoughts: in this case, Tarrell's. The contact with his father is the detonator of a gift that was considered perfect and is now falling apart. When Tarrell jerks awake and hits the wall, he relives the anguish of his past.

Present and past in the display of forgiveness

When La'Ron confesses his past and why he hasn't dated him since adolescence, Tarrell directs him on camera, which adds even more empathy to a long, powerful scene. A flashback shows young Tarrell following his father around, pushing a lawn mower to scrape together a few odd jobs, or picking up trash in a dump, until a nail is driven into young Tarrell's foot.

If forgiveness is allowed, the consequences that come with it are not, and you have to get used to them. Tarrell understands this and refuses to compromise.

The nail driven into his foot and left untreated by his father is still the mark of the past that cannot be forgotten. The final scene, in which Tarrell intervenes in his painting of a boy pushing a lawnmower, sheds light on the disproportionate nature of forgiveness.

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