Exhibiting Forgiveness

Though Exhibiting Forgiveness‘ family drama is a bit paint-by-numbers, the textured and heartfelt debut from writer-director Titus Kaphar offers plenty of winning flourishes, including André Holland’s impressive performance.

When this movie is really getting into art, using art, when you're watching Andre Holland create art, that's when it really came to life.

Art is constructive, whereas drugs annihilate, and religion can be exploited. And yet the rich takeaway of “Exhibiting Forgiveness” is that artmaking is a journey, not necessarily a solution.

“Exhibiting Forgiveness” is a visual revelation.

The movie isn’t wanting for dramatic juice. It simply never comes together with the sort of gathering force that we witness in its own scenes of artistic creation.

In “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” Kaphar’s autobiographical film debut, the artist again focuses on rending absence — and seeks to fill it fully.

It is also the kind of film that improves and feels like a masterpiece with repeat viewings, which will reward patient viewers with a deeper understanding of the rich story structure, which may seem straight forward, but is more complex on second glance.

A work blessedly untainted by the flattened emotional palette so typically employed in dramatic narrative cinema, and one that also asserts its essential, nuanced understanding of film as a visual language. There’s nothing to forgive here.

The movie is quite tender and quite gentile.

This is a heart-wrenching but beautifully acted drama.