Repentance is not your typical revenge film. Anthony Mackie and Mike Epps play Tommy and Ben, brothers whose lives take very different directions after a car accident nearly kills both of them. Tommy becomes a self-help guru and best-selling author, while Ben is in and out of jail and deeply in debt to some unsavory characters. To help his brother and make some fast cash, Tommy agrees to take on a private client, Angel (played by Forest Whitaker), who is having a hard time getting over the sudden death of his mother.
The film, directed by Philippe Caland, is a loose “remake” of Caland’s own film, The Guru & the Gypsy. Whitaker, who starred in Caland’s The Ripple Effect, describes it as a “re-envisioning” of that early film. “It deals with karma and people’s subconscious.” But he also believes that there is a touch of the supernatural in Repentance. “I don’t necessarily believe we are seeing [Angel’s] mom, but playing the character, I had to believe it was true.”
Of course, things sour in the film when Tommy attempts to “break up” with Angel, and Angel won’t take no for an answer. “Anthony went through a lot: being tied up, wrapped up, suffocated, water thrown all over him. It was a strange experience,” Whitaker admits. “I surrendered to it; I lived in it.” Angel takes Tommy hostage, and that is when things fall apart. “He is looking for the truth,” he says simply.
With an open-ended finale, Whitaker says it is more complicated than a simple morality tale. “I definitely see it as dealing with the healing process of things that we’ve done. You don’t really see if he feels redeemed or not.”
Repentance opens in theaters today.