The Forgotten

Review by Clint Morris

What an intriguing premise: Telly Paretta (Julianne Moore), a mother still grieving over her son Sam's death in a plane crash more than a year ago, is suddenly informed by her husband (Anthony Edwards) and shrink (Gary Sinise) that she's a whack-job and that there never was a Sam, never was a plane-crash.

They're seemingly right too, all the photos that Telly thought she had of Sam aren't actually of Sam at all. And the video she had of Sam? Blank, nothing on it.

Telly doesn't buy this though; she has distinct memories of her boy. Teaming with an alcoholic former hockey player (Dominic West) whose daughter similarly may or may not have existed; they go off on a 'Conspiracy Theory' like mission to find out the truth. Whatever, and as strange as that, may be.

That's the first hour of Joseph Ruben's new movie anyway. The second hour? Well, for a start there isn't a second hour. There's a brief 25 minutes left of the movie.

Somewhere along the line someone decided to ditch the second act and hurry for the finish line. And the result? A mess. The promising first hour of the film is wasted on a hurried, absolutely laughable finale. No possible explanation at all.

But first to the movies first half. What a wild ride this is. The story is intriguing, the performances are commanding and best of all, it's effective. I dare anyone to try not jumping out of their seat for at least a couple of moments here and there.

Then at the hour mark the movie starts to go way, way, downhill. We enter a different type of movie. A late-night supernatural TV movie where things are happening for no apparent reason. It all becomes rather laughable. And the finale? A real con.

2.5 out of 5

The Forgotten
Australian release: Thursday November 4th
Cast: Julianne Moore, Dominic West, Gary Sinise, Alfre Woodard, Linus Roache, Anthony Edwards.
Director: Joseph Ruben.
Website: Click here.

Brought to you by MovieHole