The Forgotten (2004)

A Film Review

Copyright Dragan Antulov 2005

Current box-office slump in North America could be attributed, among other things, to audience getting tired of promise in Hollywood trailers that never gets delivered in actual feature films. One of such undelivered promises is THE FORGOTTEN, 2004 thriller directed by Joseph Ruben.

Protagonist of this film is Telly Parretta (played by Julianne Moore), New York woman who still grieves over her son Sam (played by Christopher Kovaleski) who died in plane crash one year ago. Her husband Jim (played by Anthony Edwards) and psychotherapist Dr. Jack Munce (played by Gary Sinise) are trying to help her get through this difficult time. After a while Telly begins to noticing strange things - Sam's photographs begin to disappear from family albums and, when confronted about it, Jim claims that two of them never had a child and that her son was product of imagination. Telly's subsequent inquiry discover no traces of plane crash in the media but Ash Correll (played by Dominic West), a hockey player whose child also died, might give an answer whether she is affected by madness or something more sinister.

Basic idea of Gerald Di Pego's script wasn't particularly original, but it was a sound basis for what was supposed to be disturbing and intriguing thriller where the audience, just like the heroine, has to tackle different perceptions of reality. Joseph Ruben was capable director and Julianne Moore was surrounded by very talented cast of character actors. Unfortunately, Di Pego didn't have enough skill to maintain the high level of tension throughout the whole script, so he early opted to deprive the audience of any sense of wonder. The protagonist and the audience have an answer to their dilemmas delivered on silver platter and what follows afterwards is safe, predictable and lame plot with unsatisfying and un-cathartic resolution after which most viewers are going to feel cheated. Few films have title more deserving than THE FORGOTTEN.

RATING: 3/10 (+)