The Forgotten (2004)

Memory movies are fun. Think Memento, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or Vanilla Sky. They really make you think (that is, unless they are brainless amnesia-themed comedies like Clean Slate or 50 First Dates) "What if that was me? What would I do?" It’s fascinating and in the case of The Forgotten, it’s downright spooky.

Julianne Moore plays Telly Paretta, a haunted woman with a seriously out of whack hippocampus. She’s tormented by the memory of her eight year old son Sam (Christopher Kovaleski), who was lost in a plane crash… only, there never was a plane crash. There never was a Sam. Or so her long-suffering husband Jim (Anthony Edwards), and her concerned therapist Dr. Munce (Gary Sinise), tell her. But she doesn’t believe it. Telly remembers. She has photos and videos and keepsakes to verify her recollections. Or, she did. What’s happened to them? One day everything starts to disappear and Telly’s sanity is called into question -- but she refuses to deny her own precious, and very real, memories.

A desperate Telly flees from her husband and doctor, seeking solace with Ash Correll (Dominic West), the father of one of the other plane crash victims. At first he doesn’t remember Telly. He denies he ever had a daughter and like everyone else, he’s convinced that the frantic redhead is totally bonkers. But then Telly produces evidence that convinces him otherwise. Together, they embark on a dangerous journey to prove that memory does not fail.

Occasionally we see Telly’s putative son, still not knowing if he was ever real. As the flashbacks flash, bad guys come into the picture and give chase. Telly and Ash run, and now everyone and everything is suspect. Is it a government experiment gone awry? Is Telly a quasi-Stepford Wife? Is it alien forces? Demonic forces? Identity theft? Just a bad dream brought on by a too-rich midnight snack?

It really doesn’t matter what the reason for Telly’s memory-warp is, because it’s just fun to ride The Forgotten until the wheels fall off. They do fall off eventually, but it’s no matter. Pick it apart, and The Forgotten is a flimsy vehicle indeed; choose to enjoy it for the cinematic scooter it is, and you’ll get happily sucked in. The Forgotten is buoyed by some terrific acting (Moore is, as always, exceptional); breakneck pacing; popcorn spilling scares; and judicious, well-done special effects. The music is quite stirring, but the cinematography is too shaken.

I’m not proclaiming The Forgotten is Oscar-worthy, but if you enjoy the types of memory movies I mentioned at the top -- forgotten already? I said: Memento, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Vanilla Sky -- and you are partial to scary supernatural stuff like The X-Files movie, Dark City, or the recent TV mini series The 2400, then go ahead and check out The Forgotten. If not, then just forget it.

Review by Staci Layne Wilson for Horror.com