The forgotten

Year of release : 2004

Run time : 1h31m

Genre : Psychological Thriller / Sci Fi

Cast : Julianne Moore, Dominic West, Gary Sinise, Anthony Edwards

Telly has a daily routine in which she remembers her dead son, by looking at his pictures, watching videos of him, and touching his clothes. She goes to a therapist who starts telling her she is crazy. It starts by telling her she didn't have coffee that day, he did, and it doesn't matter she still tastes it in her mouth, he had it, and she thought she did by seeing him drink it. When this all starts, she also can't find where she parked her car, as she thinks she parked in one place, but she finds it in another.

When she gets home she realizes the family picture changed, as their son is not in the picture with her and her husband anymore, it's just the two of them.

The next day she doesn't find any of his pictures in the photo albums, nor videos on the tapes. She confronts her husband about it, and he tells her there never was anything in those albums or on those tapes, it was all in her head. The therapist comes by, telling her her son never existed, and she made him up!

Telly tells him she couldn't have made up 9 years of memories, and she even remembers when her son left with the plane that cr@shed! Her husband tells her her son was stillborn, and she is in post traumatic shock! A 9 years one! Because she refuses to believe them, the therapist tells her he needs to hospitalize her. So she runs away.

Trying to prove she's not crazy, she goes to the public library to find the papers about her son, but they are missing, and her friends don't remember her son, Sam, either.

So she goes to the father of one of Sam's friends, who started drinking after she (his daughter) died. The man, Ash, doesn't remember his daughter either, and has her room turned into an office. Because Telly took down all the wallpaper in his office, discovering his daughter's drawings underneath, he calls the police on her.

 

After the police take her, Ash enters his daughter's room, now his office, and seeing the drawings he remembers her! So he runs after the police, but they tell her the NSA agents took her. Why would the NSA be interested in her?!

The NSA agents beat him up as he's trying to talk to Telly, who's in their car, and he helps her get away from their locked car. The two meet up later, and rent a hotel room together, trying to figure out what's going on. Why would anyone try to make them forget about their kids and why would they erase them from everything and everyone's minds?

This used to be one of my favorite movies (I even have it on original DVD), but last night, when I watched it I found it stupid. SPOILERS Why are these aliens taking people from in front of our lead by pulling them out even from inside the house,destroying the house, or whatever place they are in?! Aren't they supposed to be stealth?! Also, apparently these aliens are unbreakable, and all knowing! They can't be k1lled, they heal instantly, they don't even feel pain, and they can see and hear everything our leads do! How?! And if so, why are they sending humans after them?! At one point the lead even says, "they are here" because there's a breeze in the room. If they can be anywhere and unseen, why do they need anyone else to do their work for them?!

They apparently can erase the memories and the past just by having our lead think of it! They don't need any medicine or time travel machinery! Because they erase from people's minds and from any documents, the people they choose to have erased!

At the end it's revealed the therapist was gaslighting her the whole time ,and he knew she wasn't crazy! END OF SPOILERS

I also didn't understand her daily routine of remembering her dead son, as this would only make it hurt more, not heal.

The acting is good.

The visual effects were good.

The soundtrack, by James Horner, started well, but lost itself, as in the climactic scenes it didn't match whatever was on the screen, like when they were running, and it was a serene music on.

The movie has mixed to negative reviews, with 31% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and a 43 score out of 100 on Metacritic, but grossed 117.6 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 42 million, being a hit.

Cinema Score audiences graded the movie a B-.

Rating : Could have been a contender !