The Forgotten (2004)

So I’m not afraid to admit that I really don’t have a great attitude about Hollywood horror or sci-fi films.  Basically unless I’m really interested in them I pass and mostly don’t even bother to check them out on DVD either.  But when I ran across a copy of The Forgotten in a bargain bin for $3 I decided to go for it.  While it isn’t a great movie it did make me reconsider my attitude towards mainstream genre flicks.

The movie starts off with a woman named Telly that is morning the loss of her son in a plane crash.  She is in therapy and is having trouble dealing with the fact that he is gone, because in some strange way she can still feel him.  Things go from bad to worse when she discovers one day that everyone else in her life has forgotten that he ever existed.  Even her pictures are now missing him, as if he was never there.  Eventually she turns to another parent named Ash who lost his daughter, and after forcing him to remember the two of them go off in search of an answer to what is happening.  In the end they uncover an incredible secret that the government has been keeping.  But will this be enough to solve the mystery of the plane crash?  And are their children even dead? 

This is a great story that is well paced and grabs the audience’s attention.  I’m a pretty jaded viewer, but I have to say that the movie kept me guessing.  Throw in a couple of good jump scares and a neat mystery and you get an entertaining movie.  Plus the characters are likeable enough that I really cared what happened to them.  This is partly from a well-written story and partly from a great performance by the two leads, Julianne Moore as Telly and Dominic West as Ash.  They have a great chemistry between the two and in spite of that the typical Hollywood need to have some sort of romantic bond is avoided.  That was both surprising and refreshing.  Additionally I wanted to mention how impressed I was with Julianne Moore.  I never would have thought she would be up to carrying a film like this, but she does a fine job.  If I have one complaint about the story it is the absolute wasted of a quality actor like Gary Sinise.  I kept waiting for the story to give his character something to do, but is never does.         

The special effects are digital, but not intrusive.  Be warned that there are spoilers coming.  For a movie about alien abduction there is a surprising lack of special effects beyond the unique way that people are removed from the planet.   I have to admit that I found this different and in the end fun.  Also this movie has one of the best car crashes that I’ve seen in a movie.  I’m not sure how they did it, but it clearly involved some creative use of CGI, without it ruining the shot.  If you are going to use CGI then this is how it should be done.    

I’m not going to say this is a classic movie, but it is pretty damn good.  I suppose like many of us that I’ve fallen into the habit of dismissing most of the new efforts from Hollywood.  I’m going to have to start paying attention I think.  I recommend renting or buying a copy of The Forgotten.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2009 John Shatzer