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The Forgotten has everything
a great psychological thriller needs: a beautiful heroine with a traumatic problem, a
stranger who’s persuaded to help her, and a mysterious hole in her life. Julianne Moore
plays Telly Paretta, a mother whose son died just over a year ago with a handful of other
children in a plane crash. Her husband, Jim (Anthony Edwards), and her shrink (Gary
Sinise) both believe she’s got serious mental issues because they claim that she never
had a son. Then she meets Ash Correll (Dominic West), whose daughter, a friend of
Moore’s non-existent son, also died in the crash—though he doesn’t
remember.
The movie starts off slowly and then jumps into fifth gear,
skipping second, third, and forth completely. It moves from scene to scene in a
herky-jerky fashion with no real reason, except to make life complicated for Telly and
Ash. The twist to their relationship is that Ash is a heavy drinker who started drinking
for a reason he can’t remember—about the time that Telly claims her son died. After
calling the cops to arrest Telly (who’s trashed his apartment), Ash suddenly remembers
his daughter and becomes Telly’s ally.
There are about six times in the
movie when you’ll jump straight up out of your seat. Pay close attention, and you’ll
see the first one coming, and number six is pretty obvious, too. But the rest are just
plain heart stoppers. It’s not gory or blood-filled—just filled with those “Oh my God”
moments that come from out of left field.
The plot is a good one, and the
acting is the best possible. But that doesn’t stop it from falling apart more and more
as the movie goes on. It would insult the television show if you compared it to the
original Twilight Zone, and it’s not quite as good as the X-Files, either.
In fact, the ending is so odd and out of place that you wonder why they even shot it.
The Forgotten is a pretty good date movie, but it’s not one that
you’re going to want to see more than once.
