The Forgotten | | Cast : | Julianne Moore, Dominic West | | Director : | Joseph Ruben | | Studio : | Columbia Tristar Hom | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | September 24, 2004 | | DVD Released Date : | June 07, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), French (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 06, 2005 | | Summary | 9/11 Nonfeasance 'For Dummies' | Content
 | Construction of false or hoaxed conventions for the public to apply on their national agencies in order that their appearance of nonfeasance be sensationalized, i.e. this movie, while it experiments with surrealism, a sort of intermediate reality where characters converse and either have or don't have their children, is really a platform for injecting the trench coat stereotype of an NSA, who amount to nothing more than a Keystone Cops enforcer, covering any signs in the neighborhood something has gone wrong; or in other words tampering, concealing and destruction of evidence, interfering with or abducting a witness, pressuring their silence or even forcing them to lie. Their sole purpose and function is to plead incapacity in the wake before and after any disaster affecting the country, a sheer contradiction tantamount to sedition in film. Happily the film avoids maligning the NSA beyond the pursuit of the woman, they never catch her, only the alien android does, the one using the government to break the laws and sequester a test subject studying human emotion and audience gullibility. I guess by the movie's non-reality, that's still ok, then we have to draw the immediate comparison in context with contemporary reality:
What the public forgets, sinking into their theater seats and the wide screen imagination of the movie's artistically beguiling creators, of course, (no other motive or intent that sheer performance excellence and plying their marvelous craft for an appreciative public, as usual, blameless and above board at all times-it's only a movie) is that the grounds for the fictional freedom fenders to default is because of an imaginary and capricious evil alien force from outer space. You see it all the time of course, the public is sold on the realization they can be vacuumed off the planet without warning at any time of day or night. The public fails to apply its otherwise conditioned reality check to refuse the solicitation of the ufo conspiracy, instead believing all of it for the benefit of clandestine warfare having its way with our assumed sense of defenselessness and no capacity for resisting our inevitable overthrow. The mercurial is more the triangulation of asymmetric transnationally run guerilla warfare out of global intelligence and security agencies to suit their purposes, which by now are fairly apparent: simply transfer the appropriate political climate for a paranoid totalitarian police state directly into American government by means of contrived violent conflict, with ethnic cleansing fringe benefits and all that old spirit and muster of colonial conquering. Where do they keep sending in these exploding clowns from? Another paradox the public has fallen asleep to, having gotten so used to the antithesis: next to no empowerment or available means to chase after their dreams or express their political identity. Oh well...somebody loves the terrorists more than us nobodies. They are expendable of course and the critical mission contingency is the suicide of the bomber, that way they're not around to assist any inquiries into where they are manufactured and how. What crime? Only religious fanaticism. Such routine, automatic, mindless dedication...hmmmmmm...I wonder...where would'ya find such a technology...?
This is why the movie "The Forgotten" must not be forgotten and should be carefully scrutinized, not on the merit of what it prefers its image, in the entertainment market of motion pictures, but as how it comes across directly, setting aside the banal novelties it uses to attend an agenda of misinformation targeting not some fictional mother-absent-child character, instead the contemporary American public. Movies are more elaborate advertising the public pays for instead, a simple misperception of role reversal in a setting were the public mistakes it is being served and waited on instead in order to entertain it. The charcoal underlining is we will just get what we deserve for our passivity and expectations. Beware of strangers making movies, usually anything that lures or draws attention adapts to coopt an ulterior purpose, as seen in nature all the time.
This and other films concurrently, (`RedEye' and `Flight Plan'), are films processing the aftermath of the 9/11 event, and again, like the empaneled commission that goes by the same name and was a fabrication of executive appointees in conflict of interest with the then administration, rather than a full scale criminal investigation from ground zero outward, exhausting all the scientific methods of forensics available to reconstruct and compare with the hypothesis of the twin tower's collapse-the anomalous fallout of explosively pulverized gypsum powder (sheet rock) evident even in photography etc. We instead have to watch the PBS program NOVA play the public cartoons in a mythology of melting plastic floors buckling with video animation and no sprinkler systems or other complications to its cartoon statement's requirements. Part of the non-existent crime work shows up also on cable's History Channel in a program about metallurgy pitching the same short shrift about the both building's necessarily naively and obviously identical set of all conditions-no mention is made about their structural integrity regardless, much else any probability analysis. American's aren't good at math, for a reason. We'll accept reality on their terms, far away from any courtroom.
The Forgotten exploits the idea buildings come apart with a cosmic significance, people disappear and nothing should be done about it, no one can know, and it weaves them into a sadistic tormenting of the maternal instinct, ending up praising religiously brocaded powers to resist it the federal government lacks. The Moore character (not a second or third class citizen) is for some reason granted immunity, unlike so many others who's soul had no resistence, because, we are led to believe, she was important in their experiment to tease Americans into believing kidnaping could be used to threaten them into silence over the perception their government is in business for itself; or even gullible enough to add insult to injury with films like this spun out of slush budget accounts without numbers to tell everyone some big, important message. Look for missing-baby in upcoming film "Flight Plan", where another child plays counterweight or crutch in another folly about the more believable, home grown, race and class specific lotharios like "The Panic Room". And please, these pieces of junk propaganda are worth only semiotic, current events appraisal. No fawning complacency is required actually, they are mocking you and attempting to steal your identity, what your beliefs must be, what your fears must be, and what the government must be in relationship to any alibi. "Oh we'ya, dey'go duh'neibu'hood....NSA gonna'ste'yo bay-bay!....Yes'it is...."
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| Rating | | | Date | August 04, 2005 | | Summary | Actors Save the Day | Content
| The fantastic, committed performances of the talented cast sustains this overlong episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE worth watching. Julianne, Dominic, Linus, Alfre, Gary...even the kids...not a bad apple in the bunch.
Two endings included to choose from, so take your pick.
Unfortunately, the commentary track from the Writer & Director doesn't offer much behind-the-scenes insight, except to point out the distressing (and all too common) reality of how little communication and understanding existed between them during production.
If nothing else, it's great to watch these talents actors and be reminded of the superheroic potential of that great invisible weapon: the permanent umbilicle cord that exists between mother and child! |
| Rating | | | Date | August 03, 2005 | | Summary | Easily FORGOTTEN! | Content
| The first half of this film takes you into a psychological mystery that succeeds in keeping you wondering.
However, by the time the mystery is finally revealed, you're ultimately let down by what feels like a cliche of the "aliens stole my brain!" revelation (hey, it practically happened to Arnold in TOTAL RECALL). Unfortunately, even Julianne Moore's good acting can't save this one.
Perhaps if this ridiculous story had been used for an X-FILES movie of the week, it would have made more sense. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 30, 2005 | | Summary | Mostly terrible film | Content
| Like most of these reviews, this has spoilers.
Julianne Moore's acting was good. Not really anyone else's, who were wasted. Cinematography was okay, but the handheld was usually obvious and sometimes overdone. The special effects were surprising at times.
Other than that, one of the biggest wastes of my time in years. I am attracted to psychological mysteries - but this wasn't one as it turned out. Oddly, the longer the film continued, the more I was convinced that it HAD to resolve psychologically, or at the very least resolve in am ambiguous way. Why? Because on its own terms, the plot had far more holes than the typical thriller and the dialog was utterly absurd. It could NOT really be happening; it had to be a dream, a hallucination, a military experiment on Telly.
But, alas, it was really happening, and thus ridiculous as well as terribly executed. Ignoring the absurdity of the inconceivable power the aliens have over every mental and physical aspect of earth life, the human actions depicted are badly scripted, the dialog often wincingly bad, and the players' motivations fuzzy.
I can't list (or even remember) the number of times I yelled at my TV, but here are a few: After their car is wrecked (how were they found at night, and was smashing a car broadside at high speed by an NSA heavy-duty SUV the most affective way to apprehend them? Why not just launch a missle at them! She isn't even hurt at all, but most SUV vs. passenger-car broadside crashes at even half the depicted speed would result in a passenger-car fatality), the next day they get in another car. Not using credit cards anymore so they cannot be traced? That was an issue the night before. Then how do they acquire that car? Is it a rental? Then they run over an alien. Why does the alien make sure they do it? And allow himself to be seen by a witness. Why does that witness call in Alfre Woodard, of all people? Maybe she has traced the credit card they should never have used, I can accept that.
Then at one point they go to the bankrupt Questair and the woman in the office says "My God! Who are you?" What kind of dialog is that? Wouldn't a real person, if surprised, say "Oh! You surprised me, sorry. How can I help you?" That actress must have been somebody's sister or mother, her performance was not professional, although the lines she was given weren't her fault. The solution to how they get Spineer's home address on Long Island - um, can't high school creative writing students find a more clever solution than what they did? The way they trick her to reveal the address is SO lame, kind of the oldest trick in the book - nothing fresh or original here - and she just blurts out his real address with no hestitation! Okay, for whatever reason she's an idiot and does this, fine. But then why does she then report that she has been scammed? Ten minutes later she thinks again "My God! Who WERE they?! Oh, What have I done? Oh, they must have tricked me!" Right. So now certainly she calls the police? Why? And which police? To say what? That she gave an address to a man and a woman? The police will care about that? Even if they did, why would the police connect this to Telly and Ash and pass it over to Alfre's investigation? So then Alfre shows up at the house, and the alien allows himself to be shot by her instead of just disappearing? Why?! And then her story goes nowhere as she is sucked away.
Why is Questair bankrupt? If they can suck the memory out of Jim so that he not only forgets his daughter but then even forgets his wife (why? why? That has nothing to do with the so-called experiment about a mother's bond), then why allow Questair to go bankrupt and be investigated? Just suck out the memory of the auditor or the court or whatever.
Why is Ash's memory of his daughter erased? If the experiment is about a mother's bond, what does that have to do with him? He is not a mother.
Everything is erased magically - not just memories, but photos altered, videos erased, drawings on books erased, old microfilm in every library in the world altered to remove the story from the NY Times, meaning every page is renumbered, the entire newspaper is reorganized in every back issue and computer version and microfilm of the world. Okay, these are very powerful aliens, fine. But then they can't get the wallpaper right in the daughter's room? No, they can alter every electronic, film and print version of the NY Times everywhere in the world, but they hire a lousy interior decorator to do a bad wallpapering job in the daughter's room.
I was just screaming at all of it. My thought was "Obviously this is a dream or delusion because this story is so bad with so many holes and such horrible dialog that it cannot have really happened, even in a world where special forces are acting upon them." I was convinced there was an experiment - but it was that Julianne had volunteered to be injected with some kind of memory altering drug for the NSA.
However, the scenes in which Julianne were not present, like with the police, made this increasingly unlikely, to my growing despair.
If they had even left us with that ambiguity, the movie might have had some redeeming quality.
I listened to a fraction of the director/writer commentary, and agree with what others wrote - it is boring. Not only that, it doesn't sound like the two had ever before met, or even knew each other. The director was asking the writer to explain certain things that he certainly should have known in order to film the garbage. The filming choices were not intelligently made. They point to poor dialog or just utterly standard moments and say "I really like that he says that there." Why? Nothing interesting or unusual was apparent at those moments These are not two filmmaking geniuses whose words can illuminate things for any serious student of film or even anyone with a casual interest.
I suppose the film could be studied for how NOT to write or make a movie. Ultimately, the film stands as tremendous inspiration to anyone else who has ever thought of getting into, say, screenwriting: if this can make it to the screen with a multi-million dollar budget, your idea probably can too. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 27, 2005 | | Summary | Was Good....Untill THEY showed up | Content
| This movies first hour had it all, Suspense, action, conspiracy, and a good plot. But then the movie goes sour when it turns into a episode of the X-Files.
Telly(Juilliane Moore) is a mother who loves her only son and her son is the only reason for her to be living.
One day She sends her son on a going away trip on an airplane, and next you know she's talking to a mental doctor and he tells her she never had a son and she is not mentally well.(sounds good so far right)
But she recalls she had a son, she has memories, she thought she had pictures but her photoalbums are all empty.
So whats going on???
is she crazy? A government cover-up?? or An Alien Abduction???
No it cant be aliens, come on!!! it can't!!! thats like so x-files!! who still does Alien Abductions these days????
The Positives
+The first hour is really great, you have these Men in black suits chasing Telly and her neighbor(who had a daughter too but seems brainwashed also)all around the city.
+You brain is trying to solve whats going on
+great plot twists for most part
The Negatives
-The Ending of this movie limps to the finish line,and the great suspense this movie built throughout the movie was abruptly ended.
-People being sucked from the ground to the sky is stupid.
Conclusion-This movie could have been a really good suspense/thriller movie. And for the most part it is, but when you find out who's behind the children's vanishings, the movie loses interest and reality really fast.
3 stars out of 5
The Opinionated One has Spoken.
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