Tarrell (André Holland) confronts his father La'Ron (John Earl Jelks) in Exhibiting Forgiveness.Exhibiting ForgivenessReal Art WaysHartfordNov. 1, 2024I’m going to be real: I couldn’t wait to give Titus Kaphar’s new movie, Exhibiting Forgiveness, a glowing review.A first-time movie by a new Black writer/director? With an all-Black cast? That’s not about being murdered by the police? Hell yeah, I was ready to sing its praises from the mountaintop.But after watching the film, I have to be honest with myself and the reader. There’s some good here from a first-time director, but not enough to hold together Kaphar’s ambitions.Exhibiting Forgiveness tells the story of Tarell (played by André Holland), a successful Black artist with a lovely wife Aisha (Andra Day) and a too-cute son Jermaine (Daniel Michael Barriere). One day, his formerly drug-addicted father La’Ron (John Earl Jelks) appears at his front doorstep, seeking reconciliation and forgiveness.That’s a great setup for a family drama. But throughout the film’s two-hour runtime, not much is done with it. There’s a lot of requisite yelling and crying, but it feels like the texture of family conflict instead of the substance. We can see the hurt that comes out of these relationships. But any time we get close to the why, the movie jumps away as if it has touched a hot stove. A good example of this is when La’Ron and Tarell finally sit down to talk. La’Ron begins to explain his own upbringing. As the scene progresses, it feels like we’re finally getting some answers about not just La’Ron’s abusive behavior, but also Tarell’s response to it. Yet the scene ends when Tarell manufactures some outrage about an off-hand comment his father makes.Afterwards, Tarell goes to see his mother Joyce (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who is wasted in her role), who continues to beg him to forgive his father by quoting Scripture at him. Tarell asks his mother why she left him with his father; she simply doesn’t respond. Another stove that’s too hot.The movie needs to grab that hot stove and hold on for dear life. We need to be seared by the pain and emotion that drive these characters, not just be told about it. Tarrell feels like a hollow vessel for the audience’s anger, either at La’Ron or at their own upbringing.That’s where the film’s greatest weakness becomes apparent. It relies on the viewer to fill in their own emotional experiences to undergird the visual texture of the film.As a result, the most affecting scenes in the movie are the flashbacks when a young Tarrell recalls one particularly bad day working alongside his father. Young Tarrell is played by Ian Foreman, who I think gives the best performance in the movie. It’s the only time we see the pain and the anguish that Tarrell carries. I was the part that connected the most directly to my own emotions. But again, I had strong emotions remembering my upbringing, not because of what Tarrell was experiencing.In the end, it feels like a strong cast has been swamped by a movie that doesn’t go anywhere, emotionally or plotwise. There’s a lot of sound and fury, but it doesn’t add up to the emotional punch I was hoping for.I want to get a little meta about this job for a moment, because this movie has made me reflect on what I do and why I do it. It is easier to tear down someone else’s creative work than it is to create your own, so I try to approach my reviews with a sense of humility. When I began writing reviews, I told anyone who would listen that I always looked for the positive to write about, because I thought it was my responsibility to be kind with my words.Then I had a chance encounter with Rita Moreno (yes, that Rita Moreno). I told her what I do for a living, and shared my philosophy about positivity.“That’s fine,” she said. ​“But your job is to critique.” I try to write with that advice always in the back of my mind. I try to do my job, even when it hurts. And yes, this one hurt because I am invested in the success of Black artistic endeavors. I want to help push our creative expression forward.But more than that, I want to do my job. The great Rita Moreno commanded me so. Who am I to argue with greatness?Tarrell and his wife Aisha (Andra Day) at his exhibit.