THE FORGOTTEN
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2004 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
Telly Paretta (Julianne Moore) is a forgetful woman. She forgets where she parks her car and whether she just had a cup of coffee or not. But she refuses to forget her 9-year-old son Sam, who died 14 months and 6 days ago in a plane crash with five other Brooklyn children.
Her husband Jim (Anthony Edwards) and her psychiatrist, Dr. Munce (Gary Sinise), are doing their best to help Telly deal with her understandable grief. But, when Jim removes all traces of Sam from their apartment and when Jim and Dr. Munce claim that Sam never existed, Telly is rock solid in her conviction that Sam is something she hasn't forgotten and never will.
Joseph Ruben's THE FORGOTTEN is an engrossing thriller that promises to be great but settles for merely good. The script, by Gerald Di Pego, goes too far off of the deep end with its explanation for the mystery when a more plausible reason would have been much more satisfactory. And the characters are a bit too easy to pigeonhole into those who know what is going on and those who don't.
With almost as much running as RUN LOLA RUN, the movie never bogs down. Telly hooks up with Ash Correll (Dominic West), a guy with a daughter whom he doesn't remember but Telly does. Telly and Ash spend most of the movie being chased all over town. The movie is peacefully creepy but does have several moments guaranteed to make audiences jump a little. It also has a single, really neat special effect which is used frequently, but to describe it would give away a key plot twist.
Although the film expects to be taken seriously, it throws in some really funny little lines to amuse us. Ash, an alcoholic ex-hockey star, derides baseball as, "a great game -- only sport you can play while taking a nap." And, when Telly first attempts to explain to him exactly what is going on, he looks at her in astonished disbelief as he tells her, "You're freaking me out. I'm having a National Inquirer moment."
Anastas N. Michos's cinematography, especially his extensive use of aerial shots to set the scene, is exemplary. James Horner's music nicely sets the mood without ever overwhelming it. Still, you're likely to leave having enjoyed the picture but wishing it had been even better.
THE FORGOTTEN runs a fast 1:31. It is rated PG-13 for "intense thematic material, some violence and brief language" and would be acceptable for kids around 11 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, September 24, 2004. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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