The Forgotten (2004)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Joseph Ruben

Writer (WGA):

Gerald Di Pego (written by)

Release Date:

24 September 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

You'll Never Forget The Ones You Love

Plot:

Told that their children never existed, a man and woman soon discover that there's a much bigger enemy at work.

Plot Keywords:

Psychiatrist | Memory | Mother Son Relationship | Alien Abduction | Memory Loss

Awards:

6 nominations

Cast

Julianne Moore	...	Telly Paretta
Christopher Kovaleski	...	Sam
Matthew Pleszewicz	...	Sam at 5
Anthony Edwards	...	Jim Paretta
Jessica Hecht	...	Eliot
Linus Roache	...	A Friendly Man
Gary Sinise	...	Dr. Jack Munce
Dominic West	...	Ash Correll
Katie Cooper	...	Library Clerk
Scott Nicholson	...	Cop
P.J. Morrison	...	Cop
Robert Wisdom	...	Carl Dayton
Tim Kang	...	Agent Alec Wong
Kathryn Faughnan	...	Lauren Correll
Alfre Woodard	...	Det. Anne Pope

Also Known As:

Stranger (Philippines: English title) (review title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for intense thematic material, some violence and brief language.

Runtime:

91 min | USA:94 min (extended version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Iceland:12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #38908) | Malaysia:U | Germany:12 | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:12 | Chile:TE | Czech Republic:12 | Finland:K-15 | Ireland:12 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Peru:PT | Philippines:PG-13 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Zurich) | UK:12A

Filming Locations:

Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Revolution Studios

Trivia:

Nicole Kidman was originally attached to star.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The address for the house on Long Island that is given is only the street address and "Long Island." In actuality, Long Island is made up of many smaller towns and different counties. There should have been the name of a certain town included in the address, otherwise the house could have been located anywhere on the whole island.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Dr. Jack Munce: How much time did you spend at the dresser compared to last week?
Telly Paretta: Less.
Dr. Jack Munce: How much less?
Telly Paretta: I don't know exactly.
Dr. Jack Munce: You wanna make a guess, roughly, for the week?
Telly Paretta: Oh, not even an hour a day.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008) (V)

Just not good.

Plain and simple; this movie just wasn't much good to watch. By no means an horrible movie but just one that lacks about everything needed to make a good decent genre movie.

The movie began pretty well. Pretty standard stuff but good and promising nevertheless. The movie however soon starts to go downhill rapidly from the moment on when the movie its 'supernaturual' elements start to appear in to the story. It's just too ridicules and unbelievable all, even for a genre movie such as this one.

Aside from its supernatural elements, the movie is formulaic and doesn't offer much real surprises with its story, events and characters. It just doesn't make this movie the most tense or mysterious genre movie around. The story is for too long not heading anywhere interesting. The ending also leaves far too many questions, which makes the ending and overall movie as a whole a quite unsatisfying one to watch.

The movie just doesn't always flow well. Some moments even look awkward, due to some weird and bad editing. Since Richard Francis-Bruce is a competent director my guess is that he just didn't had better material to work with and that the director Joseph Ruben is to blame for this bad flow and inconsistency.

Julianne Moore still obviously believed in the project. She acted as if her life depended on it. It's painful to watch a good performance in a bad movie. The rest of the actors get mostly pushed to the background. A shame, since it wastes the talents of Gary Sinise and Anthony Edwards, who play far too uninteresting roles. I mean, it are the type of roles basically every actor could had played, just as good and interesting.

So for a genre movie it just isn't good enough. It lacks real good tension or mystery and offers too few surprises. Also the fact that the ending isn't overall satisfying is a reason why "The Forgotten" is a typical standard formulaic lackluster genre movie that disappoints.

5/10