You might not forget "The Forgotten" because it taps into one of the most basic human emotions: the strongest of bonds between a mother and a child.
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What if you were told that every moment you experienced and every memory you held dear never happened?
That's the tagline on this psychological thriller, which stars Julianne Moore as a mother whose nine-year-old son was killed in a plane crash 14 months ago. But now weird things are happening, and director Joseph Ruben ("Sleeping with the Enemy") quickly establishes an atmosphere that prepares audiences for the surprising chain of events which follows. You'll have some "Back to the Future" flashbacks of slight familiarity, but the structure of "The Forgotten" is very much like a pebble dropped in water which leaves an ever-expanding succession of ripples and rings, each one larger than the one before. Instead of a pebble, make that a meteor.
Ruben certainly has a sense of style. By combining an overhead helicopter establishing shot of the New York cityscape with a title credit sequence where the names start out large but gradually shrink until they fade into nothingness, he quickly creates a strong, suggestive visual that sets up the opening plot sequences. Telly Paretta (Moore) is having a senior moment some 50 years prematurely. She's sure she's parked her car right here, but lo and behold it's across the street. And at her therapist's office, she goes to grab a coffee from the end table but is told by Dr. Jack Munce (Gary Sinise) that she never had a coffee. At home, she's beginning to freak out in more serious ways. A photograph of her husband, Jim (Anthony Edwards, from "E.R."), and her with their son, Sam, one day turns into a photo of just the two of them. And those scrapbooks she's been pouring over daily by the boy's dresser, as if it were a shrine? Suddenly, those books are blank. Is she suffering from paramamnesia, as the doctor and husband suspect, creating a life for herself the past fourteen months to compensate for the loss of her son? Or worse, was her traumatic psycho-substitution the result of a devastating stillbirth? Did she create a son for herself after losing him at birth? No, no, she's positive she had a son and his name was Sam and he got on a plane and he never came back. But her psychiatrist and her husband are trying to convince her that she's delusional (Ripple #1), and it rocks her boat. "Sometimes the mind needs help with letting a thing go," the good doctor says.
I have a rule about reviewing thrillers, and it goes something like this: I'm not about to talk about anything in the plot that isn't stated or implied in the DVD cover copy, because I don't want to spoil the film for anyone. So let me just say that the rest of the film follows Telly as she tries to find an anchor to hold onto during this emotional storm, seeking out another parent whom she believes had a daughter who played with her son—a daughter whom she also believes was coincidentally killed in that plane crash. Former NFL hockey player Ashley "Ash" Correll (Dominic West) thinks she's as nuts as her husband does, but then (Ripple #2) the police get involved, and a sympathetic detective (Alfre Woodard) begins to give Telly the benefit of the doubt, and then the NSA feds are also on the case (Ripple #3). That meteor just keeps making little waves all through this taut thriller, which has surprises at every turn. It's not all mind games. There are chases and fights and crashes and a few genuine heart-stopping moments. But more than other films of this type, "The Forgotten" is rooted in human emotion.
Moore really sells it as the mother who won't be denied her child, no matter what, and West plays off of her in a way that almost matches her intensity—and Ruben knows how to milk the intensity with different camera shots. When Telly is in an emotional haze, a shaky hand-held camera and harsh-angles capture her mental state. When she's feeling trapped, a closed-frame shot of a New York street with tall buildings hemming her in on both sides and a bridge lowering the visual boom on her manages to suggest that claustrophobic emotion as well. The performances are strong, the cinematography and special effects are strong, and the script is relatively strong—which makes for a solid, entertaining film that does what it sets out to do. The ending feels a bit pat and vague (if such a thing is possible), but not so much as to make it unsatisfying. It's certainly better than the alternate ending, which is included as a viewing option.
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[release]13847[/release]