The Forgotten

My parents liked The Forgotten. I mean, really, really like it. Once a week, they would ask "did you see The Forgotten?" And then when it came out on DVD, "did you rent The Forgotten?" Finally, they just bought the CD, propped toothpicks under my eyelids, and made me watch it.

Telly (Julianne Moore) and Jim Paretta (Anthony Edwards) and Ash Correll (Dominic West) have lost their children to a mysterious plane crash. Telly is a wreck, but she's trying to get better. She regularly visits a psychologist (Dr. Jack Munce played by Gary Sinise) to help her deal with her son Sam's (Christopher Kovaleski) death. Ash finds his counseling at the bottom of a bottle.

Then one day, all evidence of Sam disappears. And suddenly, everyone in Telly's life has forgotten she ever had a son.

It's a mother's worst nightmare multiplied by a thousand: it's bad enough that Telly loses her son, but her inability to grieve makes her pain all the worse. Convinced she is not insane, Telly tries to convince Ash that he had a daughter who also died in the plane crash. When she makes some progress, things get weird.

It's to the movie's credit that Telly and Ash never sleep together. This is a character piece, not a popcorn flick. Just in case the guys get bored, I should point out that we do get to see Telly in some decidedly unmatronly underwear. But that's about as hot as it gets.

Things go from bad to worse as NSA agents and a very weird guy that never blinks (Linus Roache) begin stalking the pair. They finally get a break when they turn the tables on an agent, knock him out, and begin forcefully interrogating him. When pressed, he finally admits, "they're listening." And then...

And then...

Well you know what happens because you saw the trailer. Indeed, if you've seen the trailer, you've correctly guessed the big secret behind the entire movie. And that's a shame, because the movie hangs much of its suspense and terror on that curious plot point.

Plot-wise, there are a lot of problems with The Forgotten. The fact that Ash (an ex-hockey player) and Telly (an editor, if I remember correctly) become these amazing commandos who can put the drop on an NSA agent seems fishy. That they then become an amazing Good Cop/Bad Cop duo that can wring the truth out of said agent is preposterous. But then, the movie doesn't invest too much in logic.

That's not to say that The Forgotten is boring. Once the first agent gets sucked up into the heavens, you're always waiting for it to happen again. Too bad the characters act as if they never witnessed such an event. I don't know about you, but if I watched the roof get blown off of a cabin and a grown man shoot skyward, I'd be burrowing underground and hiding in subways. I would NOT 1) stand outside, talking about the insanity of it all, 2) drive in open country, talking about the insanity of it all, 3) run around on beaches, talking about...you get the picture.

The movie really hinges on Moore's acting ability, which is in full strength here. At least, her tear ducts are; it's a rare moment when she's not weeping. Still, she manages to switch between motherly love, heartbreaking sorrow and parental rage with expression alone. West makes a great ex-hockey player, but he's a little too conflicted to scratch beneath his surface. Just about everyone else is window dressing, or worse, mumbles their lines. That includes Sinise, who really deserves more respect.

Joseph Ruben expertly directs the movie, with long floating shots and stalker-cam views. Almost all of The Forgotten is filmed with a blue lens, and the music is perfectly matched to the mood. Let there be no doubt, The Forgotten's got style.

But ultimately it's a movie without a lot of depth. The alternate version explains things a bit more but has far less pathos. In the end, The Forgotten feels a lot like a really creepy Twilight Zone episode than a fully formed movie.