ʻThe Forgotten,” raved about in commercials as having a shocking, twist ending much like “The Sixth Sense,” can be just as the title says: forgotten. Julianne Moore stars as TellyParetta, a woman in a marriage
that seems scorned by the loss of her son in a plane crash 14 months earlier. Her husband, played by “ER” veteran AnthonyEdwards, seems tobe hiding something be hind his twitching glances, and she beginsto find that the pictures in the houseinvolving her son have been distorted. Her therapist, played by “Forrest Gumpʼs” Gary Sinise, seems to be casting glances at Edwardʼs character throughout a difficult scene where Telly is told that although she has memories of her son, Sam, he never existed. Instead, Edwardʼs character, Jim, informs his wife that she had given birth to a stillborn baby nine years ago and had been acting
delusional in the wake of the tragedy, claiming they had a son
when, in fact, they never did.
The movie spirals from there. In a rush of anxiety and utter panic, Telly takes a walk and finds herself at the playground where Sam used to play with the other children. Once there, she finds Ash Correll, a man she knew who had a daughter, Lauren, who once played with Sam. Ash, played by Dominic West, holding a bottle of liquor, has no idea who she is and even attempts to flirt with her.
She does go back to his apartment with him, understanding that he is now an alcoholic and believes that she can try to get through. Once there, she tries to convince him that behind his walls are paintings that his daughter once scribbled. “Say her name. Lauren. You started drinking 14 months ago, right? RIGHT?” she pleads, desperate for him to remember, desperate not to be as crazy as her husband and
therapist say she is. Ash insists he never had a daughter and allows
Telly to be carried off by police. As she is handcuffed and dragged out, a group of men who claim to be National Security take her into custody. Just as the car is pulling away, Ash remembers and rushes to tell her his memory of his daughter is back.
After they both escape from National Security, they begin their chase to find the truth. In the meantime, Jim meets with a Detective Pope, played by Alfre Woodard. She questions Jim about why National Security
would want to meet with his wife and again, we see a slight twitch. But,
there is something there in Detective Pope that makes her believe that maybe Telly did have a child. That maybe there is something there that no one is saying.
After realizing that they need more help than just each other, Telly returns to her husband, approaching him as he walks from his office. In a scene that could have been edited out of the movie (as it doesnʼt flow or even pertain to the ending at all), he reveals that he has no idea who she is and says he was never married. It is never explained why he has forgotten her, because the end of he movie and the ʻtwistʼ ending,explaining why this is all happening, should have no bearing on Jimʼs relationship with Telly at all.
The movie starts off well, with an emotional response from Telly with which we can sympathize. However, after the car chases are over and the cries of “Where are the children?” have been left shrilling in our ears, the realization that the movie is trying to be scarier than it actually is has set in. Throughout the movie, the sensation that someone is always watching (case in point, a dark cloud Telly sees in the sky reveals the shape of an eye), that the wind is always howling with warning,
that the dark ominous haunted setting is just waiting to jump out at us is really just a joke.
The end of the movie is unrealistic, and even worse, barely makes sense. The worst parts of the movie come in the form ofdialogue, which even see ms to be making fun of itself, mere clich in the midst of an already pathetic attempt to scare the audience. Dominic West screaming, “Where are the children?” in a scene that only further serves to confuse the audience, is lame and rather than being effective, turns out to be a
call for laughter.
Julianne Moore plays her character well, allowing the audience to respond to her sadness, and want a happy ending for the character, but the close
of the movie and the events that lead up to it are ridiculous beyond words and even received a bit of laughter within the theater. To compare “The Forgotten” with “The Sixth Sense” is a massacre of the brilliance of the latter.
“The Forgotten” is out in theaters now, but donʼt waste your money to see a movie that should never have presented itself as scary in the first place. The real plot is lost somewhere within this film, and after the movie is over, itʼs not even worth figuring out what the true point even was.