On a snowy night, a desperate man named James (Casey Fuller) enters a church with a gun.  He’s on the run from the law and fearful that, if he’s arrested, he’ll be charged with murder.  James holds a pastor (Steven Flanigan) and his two daughters, Elizabeth and Naomi (played, respectively, by Jenn Gotzon Chandler and Amy Sutton Hethcoat), hostage.  While Lt. Morgan (Kevin Sorbo) coordinates the police outside the church, Elizabeth tries to reason with James and convince him to turn himself in.  James feels that there can be no forgiveness for the mistakes that he’s made in his life.  Elizabeth disagrees.

Normally, I can’t stand films about hostage situations.  With a few notable exceptions (like Dog Day Afternoon), they tend to be dramatically inert and they also tend to features characters who spend more time filibustering than actually saying anything interesting.  Inevitably, there’s a harried but idealistic hostage negotiator who tries to convince the main criminal to surrender before things get out of control.  There’s always a lot of yelling, which tends to get old quickly. Because the film can’t really move anywhere beyond the hostage situation, there’s usually at least an hour of people refusing to answer the phone or the negotiator saying, “Hold on, I need more time!”  It’s predicable and it’s boring.

There are certain elements of all of that in 2016’s Forgiven.  This is a talky film and, because it takes place in only two locations, it’s also a rather stagey film.  There were times when I definitely got tired of listening to James complain about his life.  But, as annoyed as I got with James complaining, it was even worse when he would just silently look around with an annoyed look on his face.  At times, the film is pretty predictable.

That said, Forgiven does have a few things to recommend it.

First off, it’s short.  It clocks in at 79 minutes and that includes the closing credits.  It may sound like a backhanded compliment to praise a film for being short but, in this age of 8-part docuseries and three-hour super hero films, it was a relief to see a film that didn’t take forever to make its point.

Secondly, for a faith-based film about a hostage situation, it was generally well-acted.  Kevin Sorbo was properly world weary as the hostage negotiator.  Casey Fuller was convincing as a desperate man who is essentially in over his head.  Jenn Gotzon Chandler had the most difficult role and she played it well.

Third, in this age of cartoonish violence, I appreciated the fact that Forgiven actually was about forgiveness.  Though James may not be a master criminal at heart, he still does some pretty bad things and there are definitely consequences to his actions.  And yet, Elizabeth forgives him for his mistakes and she actually plays a positive role in his life.  That’s certainly not a bad message.

Indeed, forgiveness is a concept that the world could stand to once again embrace.  We live in an age of partisan bickering and grudge-holding.  This film has the courage to say the forgiveness is better for the heart than revenge.