 | EUROPE'S MOST VISITED SF/F WEB SITE |
| The
Forgotten check out website: www.sonypictures.com
'The Forgotten' follows Telly Paretta, a mother played by Julianne Moore, whose son is erased from the world's memory. Paretta is the only person who can remember the nine-year-old Sam who died in a plane crash. She does this in frequent flashbacks that get a little annoying towards the end of the film. Eventually her husband, Jim, (Anthony Andrews) forgets their son and then his wife as well. On the trail to an answer, Telly takes up with an alcoholic ex-hockey player, Ash Correll (Dominic West) who also had a daughter who died on that flight. When Paretta reveals the child's wallpaper under the new paper in Correll's office, he remembers his lost daughter, Lauren.
The two 'rememberers' are hunted by agents of the NSA, a sympathetic police detective, Anne Pope (Alfre Woodard) and Telly's shrink, Dr. Jack Munce (Gary Sinise). A quiet stranger, played by the creepy Linus Roache, seems to possess supernatural powers, also follows them. The fugitives escape and begin a quest to find out who is re-writing reality. Paretta and Correll capture an NSA agent, Al Petalis (Lee Tergesen) and question him under torture. Petalis begins to reveal that some unearthly power controls everything when he is sucked out of existence. This effect is wonderfully brutal because so much of the movie is quiet and low key. The desperate Paretta and Correll play detective, finding the home of the owner of the Quest Airlines whose plane crashed killing their children. At the remote house, Correll and Detective Anne Pope suffer a similar fate to that of NSA agent Petalis. Telly Paretta joins up with Dr. Munce to find the final revelation in an empty airplane hanger where the mysterious airline is supposed to exist. Here Telly finds Munce has been co-operating with the forces outside. Munce advises her to co-operate with 'them' and leaves. Telly must face her tormentor alone. I won't reveal any more of the ending but to say that the final showdown between the quiet stranger and Telly Paretta is too short after such a long struggle.
What struck me last about this film was that the majority of the plot was cribbed
from Frederick Pohl's short story 'The Tunnel Under The World'. The main character's
gender is reversed. The final revelation is not that they are all miniature robots
on a tabletop town, being used by Corporate America as guinea pigs. The final
reveal is closer to Eric Frank Russell's 'Sinister Barrier' or a 1964 episode
of 'The Outer Limits' called 'Feasibility Study'. Regular folk may ooh and ahh
over how stunningly original Gerald Di Pago's script is, SF fans know better. G.W.
Thomas
|
OTHER REVIEWS - November 2004
| ||||||||
M.
Night Shymalon can take credit for the phrase 'It's a 'Sixth Sense' kind of movie'
which roughly translates to it's moody, visually interesting and has some kind
of surprise ending. All of these descriptors apply to 'The Forgotten'. There is
one other bit that should be appended to that definition. '...has some kind of
surprise ending - and you don't want anybody to tell you what it is before you
see it.' I will try to respect that in this review as much as possible.
 | |
| nest home | search engine | site directory | library | tools | about us | | |
| |
... www.sfcrowsnest.com © 2004 CWant a ? Then send an e-mail to: hologramtales-subscribe@topica.com