John Michael McDonagh’s “The Forgiven” walks the ever-fine line between artful examination and utter monotony. Adapting Lawrence Osborne’s novel, McDonagh’s film takes place over one weekend in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco and skewers the privilege of the wealthy and white.

David (Ralph Fiennes) and Jo (Jessica Chastain) are traveling to a party taking place in the Moroccan desert. Late, lost

In the opening moment of “Outlaws” (scored to the Doom-tinged sound of the song “Lunacy” from the Ambient-Rock group Swans), a leather-clad motorcycle gang cuts through the night streets like riders of an oncoming Apocalypse. It is a moment that immediately grabs and foreshadows the aura of the film.

Director Stephen McCallum immediately assures us that his first feature