Review: Indulgence (2022) – newsdubai
Cancer at the center of movies can either provide a truly moving cinematic experience or resort to extreme manipulation. The fact that Lana Read’s “Patience” does not lie or lean towards either end can feel like a reward on offset. But the filmmaker does very little to really make you care about going the extra mile. Her films are so devoid of any emotional connection that the dangling characters leave you in a state of utter remorse. Not to check into this story, but to stay with them for 1 hour and 52 minutes of frustrating banter.
The film follows Callie (Juli Tapken) – a middle-aged high school teacher who, after 20 years of a marriage gone sour, has finally decided to call it quits. She’s secured divorce papers from her lawyer and is just working up the nerve to give them to her overbearing, alcoholic, dick of a man Josh (Travis Hancock).
However, she gets cold feet and does not serve them to him that day, and the very next day Josh is diagnosed with cancer. Her move to leave his sad, sexist ass is pushed back and she goes into caregiving mode again. The two of them must live with each other as their routine takes them back to where they started.
It’s an interesting premise we have here, and writer Cedric Gegel (who also plays the couple’s son Jonah and has battled cancer in real life) takes an interesting approach to the material where the cancer doesn’t magically change Josh and the dynamic they have as a married couple.
But instead of exploring that with at least a handful of good sequences that establish these characters as humane, the entire film feels like it’s going from one cough to the next. I mean, there are some really frustrating scenes where we’re forced to sit through good-long minutes of poorly written dialogue about life and repentance without any of it going beyond expositional mode.
The fact that the film, with all the goods checked into the narrative, makes no sense whatsoever is the least of its failings. Full of terrible performances that feel like they’re competing with each other for who’s better, Forbearance becomes a chore to sit through. And no, it doesn’t get a free pass because it handles a delicate subject and looks at redemption and forgiveness with a straightforward outlook.