London Film Festival was great, as was Kevin Smith chatting away at the Indigo 02
London Film Festival was great, as was Kevin Smith chatting away at the Indigo 02
Member since:07.09.2004
Reviews:181
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The Forgotten are those who die and slowly but surely fade from your memory. Friends and family you loved, and mourned, but need to forget for the sake of your sanity and your own life. The body needs to repair itself from mental injury as much as physical and the ‘removal’ of certain memories can save us from the continual pain and sadness they cause.
The Forgotten is based around this idea. Telly (Julianne Moore – Hannibal, The Ideal Husband) and Jim Paretta’s (Anthony Edwards – ER, Northfork & Top Gun) son, Sam, died in a plane crash while heading off on a camping trip with other children. 14 months later she is still haunted by Sam’s death and is seeing a psychologist to help her cope. She cannot forget him and cannot get on with her life while still mourning.
She seems to be finally coming to terms with things, started work as an editor again, when she comes home one evening to discover that the pictures of her, Jim and Sam now only show her with Jim. Anger wells up inside her and she confronts Jim, wanting to know why he has changed the pictures. She tells him that this will not help her forget Sam. A shocked look comes across
Jim’s face and he tells her they have never had a child, Sam never existed and that she created him, and the memories of him, after suffering a traumatic miscarriage. All the memories of Sam are just figments of her imagination!
Telly doesn’t, and cannot, believe this is, her memories are so vivid that he must have existed. She refuses to allow Sam to become one of the forgotten and tries to find out whether she is going mad or whether there is something odd going on!
As they said in X-Files ‘The Truth is Out There’ but will she like the answer when she finds it?
The Forgotten is very like a M. Night Shyamalan film (Sixth Sense, The Village); its dialogue may not be as good as Shyamalan’s but for at least the first third it plays with your perceptions of what is going on very well in the same way. Making you constantly rethink bits of dialogue and very subtle background scenery shots. While Telly’s memories are being toyed with so are you as a viewer. Is she suffering from Post Traumatic Stress or not? While it may not be too hard to decide the truth you cannot be quite sure. Unfortunately, although it probably benefits the film overall, the answer to this question is revealed way too soon. This is the films major fault from my point of view. It does allow the film to expand though and enter different territory. After the first third the film certainly changes tack.
More questions are set from this answer and you still wonder exactly what is going on. Things seem clearer but are they? More questions fly into your head as the story progresses, the sign of a film that can keep you interested throughout it’s running time.
The Forgotten is not a great movie, but it is very good and miles better than other similar films to come from Hollywood recently.
I see way too many films and find that most plots and storylines are not only obvious but any scenes that are there to shock, scare or make you jump just don’t do anything to me. The scenes are set up so meticulously and preceded by that music we all know means something is coming that they are not a surprise. Not The Forgotten, not once but twice I literally jumped in my seat and I loved that a director can do that to me. If you see the film you’ll know exactly where this happened and I guarantee you’ll jump as well!
Julianne Moore again shows what a great actress she is; in all round ability only Nicole Kidman is better than her. She is able to play any kind of part, from comedy to high drama, without looking out of place. Without it seeming as if she is straining to pull the part off. There is a scene early on where she looks through photo albums of Sam in panic, every page she turns is empty, and the sounds of the pages flicking and her sobs portray more than any words possibly could.
Apart from Julianne Moore the performances are pretty standard. Not bad by any degree but you feel anyone could have been replaced and it wouldn’t have made a difference. A few years down the line people will have forgotten(!) that Gary Sinise and Anthony Edwards were even in the film.
This is one of those films where I have to wonder whether the film critics actually saw the same film as me. The Forgotten was slated by pretty much every review I saw and I have to wonder why. Sure it is not great but it is enjoyable enough to spend your money on. The 90+ minutes fly by and I would think most people would be entertained by it.
Favourite Line: Telly is confronted by a pile of junk food and says, “I’m just deciding whether I want too much salt or too much sugar”
Certificate: 12A Running Time: 91 minutes
Director: Joseph Ruben (The Money Train, Sleeping With the Enemy, Dreamscape) Writer: Gerald Di Pego (Phenomenon, Angel Eyes)
Main Cast:
Julianne Moore – Telly Paretta Gary Sinise – Dr. Jack Munce (Forrest Gump, Ransom) Dominic West – Ash (28 Days, Mona Lisa Smile Anthony Edwards – Jim Paretta) Linus Roache – A friendly man (Blind Fight, Chronicles of Riddick) Alfre Woodard – Dct. Pope (K-Pax, What’s Cooking)
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Thriller - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Timothy West, Neil Morrissey, Tara Fitzgerald, Annette Crosbie, Pauline Quirke, Rob Brydon, Denise Van Outen, John Thomson, Kevin Whately, David Suchet
Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: K.C. Bascombe - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Jesse James, Rachel Skarsten, Charles Powell, Linda Purl, Kevin Zegars
Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: Bharat Nalluri, Rob Bailey, Andy Wilson - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner
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