Genres

Visitors Review

Dan Franzen 2012-05-26 03:49:44

It ate my brain.

Telly Paretta (Julianne Moore) is having trouble dealing with the deathof her eight-year-old son Sam. She's seeing a therapist, Dr. Munce(Gary Sinise), but both the doctor and Telly's husband Jim (AnthonyEdwards) believe she's completely delusional, and they insist Sam neverexisted.But Telly happens to run into another parent whose child died in theplane crash that claimed Sam - Ash, the hunky ex-hockey player (DominicWest). Now, two people can't both be delusional about the same thing,can they? (Well, they can, but let's not let that get in the way of ourlogic.) So, it's why-won't-anyone-believe-me Telly andwalking-distillery Ash to Solve the Mystery.Moody and brooding, the movie tosses no curveballs at the viewer;you're going to have a pretty good idea of how things'll turn out. Asintriguing as the premise is - can a forgotten child be remembered? -the script doesn't really do a heck of a lot with the concept, optinginstead to try to wow the audience with wacky (and sometimesirrelevant) CGI effects. There are car chases, things crashing, shotsfired, people rising, and people falling. This is all done to distractyou from the fact that the plot really doesn't make a whole lot ofsense. Some of the things that the characters do will make you scratchyour head a little, even if you grant them some leeway for their beingin mourning.Movies like this bug me a little. If you want to be a psychologicalmystery/thriller, then your plot ought to be strong enough to hold upunder close examination. If you just want to be a brain-dead actionmovie, then the plot part won't matter - but you should have asimplistic storyline, not a complicated one.The Forgotten should be interesting to conspiracy enthusiasts, since itties together a couple popular ones to the theme of a mother losing herchild. I can see how the premise would have made a good movie, but thefilm suffers from a propensity on the part of the screenwriter to tossin some action where a furthering of the plot would have served themovie better. Things aren't helped by director Joseph Rubin, who bringsthe same somber and hopeless tone that he brought to the equallyforgettable (pardon the pun) The Good Son (pardon that pun, too, cometo think of it).As for the acting, this also should have been a strength, what withsuch reliable pros as Julianne Moore, Alfre Woodard, Gary Sinise, andAnthony Edwards on board. But Moore seemed even hammy at times, baskingin the glow of above-the-title stardom, and the others were nothingmore than decorative wallpaper, offering little with the few lines theywere given.The Forgotten misses the mark, although not by a whole lot. As far ascontemporary thrillers go, it's best not remembered.

Mike Boyd 2012-05-25 11:19:35

Very Good Film, but the "Alternate Ending" is Better

I've seen the version of this film shown on TV several times and alwaysenjoy it - even though I know what is happening. I won't go into greatdetail as many other reviewers have already done that. I am always leftwith a couple of questions though: for example, if these aliens canmake just about everybody in the world "forget" about the plane crashand the existence of these two children, why couldn't they remove thewall painting that Lauren did in her room? Why did they just paper overit? If they are so powerful., it seems pretty crazy that they wouldleave this huge piece of evidence behind that anyone - in this caseSam's mother, Telly Paretta - could find just by scraping off thepaper.I would also like to have seen Telly call the police department at theend of the film to check that her ally, Detective Anne Pope, had"returned" and that all was well with her.So many things could have been done to make this film just a littlemore believable, but still a film well worth watching - the momentLauren's father starts to remember his daughter is very heart-warming.There is another ending which I haven't seen. Maybe it'll leave mefeeling better when I see it.Edit: OK, I've just seen the alternate ending, and it is great. I can'tunderstand why they didn't make it the normal ending.

2012-05-25 08:28:52

In Ten Years Who Will Remember "The Forgotten"? I Won't

Juliane Moore stars in this steaming celluloid melting pile of retardedness that takes everything bad about "The X Files" & stretches into an hour & forty five minute embarassment on how to properly screw up one's movie career.The film starts with Moore's character losing her young son. No, he didn't die he just "disappeared". She's told to believe he died in a plane crash. Thinking its all a cruel practical joke she confronts her husband portrayed by Anthony Edwards (its "Goose" from "Top Gun"!). Her husband doesn't know what she's ranting about because he knows they don't have children. She, of course, thinks otherwise and finds the father of one her sons friends who was also on "the plane". After some investigating both the mother & the friends father find out that the truth is out there & find out that both of their kids were abducted by aliens. In order to save her son, the mother must confront the aliens.My God did this movie suck major league ass. I couldn't believe it. If you took any episode from "The X Files" that dealt with Scully & her baby, twist some plot threads around here & there you would have "The Forgotten". Even the scene in the film where Woodard (there's a great cop. Not!) shoots the human alien in the back seven to ten times is taken directly from "The X Files"! Whats wrong with this film? Its a bit weird to see Moore and Edwards in the same movie as husband & wife. Why? They both worked together on "ER" years ago! The film wasn't scary or chilling at all. Where are the damn aliens?! The human equivalent doesn't count. I busted a gut laughing when the guy gets sucked up in the air after he says "They are listening." I was waiting for the Wicked Witch Of The West to show up! I could go on all day, but you get the drift.This movie lives up to its name. Whats the name of this film? Don't ask me, I've learned to forgive & forget.

2012-05-24 20:56:17

Not an Unforgettable Movie

Forgotten is an okay movie in which Julianne Moore stars as a mother, Telly, grieving over the death of her son Sam in an airplane crash 14 months before. Anthony Edwards plays her husband, and Gary Sinise plays her psychologist. This isn't just about grief, however, but something more strange that is happening as traces of Sam are slowly being wiped out of existence. His pictures start to fade, the pages in his memory book become blank, and his babysitter denies that he ever existed. Telly is shocked when her husband and shrink try to convince her that Sam never existed, and she refuses to believe it.She runs into Ash, the father of another child who was killed in the same plane crash. He also denies that he ever had a daughter, but Telly forces him to remember his daughter by making him say her name.Then the movie sets off on a mad escapade as the police and the NSA (or FBI- I can't remember which) start chasing Telly and Ash. Alfre Woodard plays a detective who starts to think that there are just too many weird things going on and reaches out to try to help Telly.The movie does not totally wrap up all the loose ends, and without giving any spoilers, I'll just say that I never was quite sure why the children were taken. But the movie certainly is a tribute to the strong bond between a mother and her child--even if the scenes involving Sam are awfully idyllic, particularly at the end.It as an okay movie-- a good one to rent, but certainly not one to buy. Three stars.

sgaube 2012-05-20 04:42:55

What happened to the children?? SPOILER

I understand the basis of the movie, but where did the children go?And why were they so normal in the end when they returned and theparents found them? Wouldn't the kids have been messed up a bit morefrom the whole ordeal?I thought overall the movie was pretty good, and entertaining, butincomplete and confusing. How did the Dad, the ex-hockey player all ofa sudden REMEMBER his daughter, when Telly (the Mom) never forgot herson? The concept of the story was interesting, even as aScience-Fiction movie, but there was too much left out and cut off.

Irie212 2012-05-19 14:09:59

Worst. Mother. Ever.

The irony is that the character "Telly" is supposed to be the BESTmother ever-- the only human to pass a parent-love test being proctoredby aliens. You heard me.Aliens abduct children, erase evidence of them, including memories, andthen watch people go about their lives as if they never had children.Why would aliens do that? you might wonder. Excellent question! They'recurious about the "tissue" that binds earthling parents and children.The aliens must be record bored.Only "Telly" remembers having a son, but she convinces a flirtatiousman called "Ash" (who named these people?) that he had a daughter, andthe two set out in search of the kids. This results in padding themovie with chase scenes that account for about half the running time.My advice: Do not remove your thumb from the fast-forward button.In spite of the fact that "Telly" passes the tissue test, she's theworst mother in human history because of her complete lack of concernabout anything-- and I mean absolutely anything-- except her missingkid. She shows zero curiosity about other abductions (Ash is anexception only because he can assist her), or about humanity ingeneral, let alone the fact that ALIENS HAVE INVADED EARTH. She justkeeps whining "I want to find my son." Even in the confines of a91-minute movie, a great deal more is required of commendable parentsthan blinkered-- make that blind-- devotion to their offspring.If the aliens had been studying pathological obsessions, they couldn'thave chosen a better subject than "Telly."

2012-05-15 23:40:00

Did She Have a Son?

Julianne Moore plays a mother who has lost her child. He simply perished in a plane crash one day with a number of other children on the way to camp. Now she is undergoing therapy to deal with her loss. But soon we begin to wonder if she ever really had a son. No one else acknowledges that he ever exited. They all say it is a delusion she created when she had a stillborn child.Julianne refuses to believe the delusion and fights even harder to get her son back. But her search takes her to another parent who lost a child but he doesn't remember having had a daughter. Suddenly the Feds show up and the pace of the movie really takes off. Searching for the truth and avoiding the Feds moves the story forward at an almost breakneck pace until the final revelations and solutions.Although there are some other names in the movie (Gary Sinise and Anthony Edwards), this is almost a one-woman show. It sort of reminds me of a mother's version of Finding Nemo with the parent doggedly pursuing and facing impossible odds. There are some aspects to the movie that can keep it from being popular and the original marketing made the movie out to be quite different, but this one is definitely worth taking a look at.

2012-05-15 11:00:09

fabulous

This review is from: The Forgotten (DVD) extremely good movie and juliane moore is a very talented actress.i've received it sooner than expected, again very forst class. service as always. thanksmarcel decoppet spain

Jelco de Jong 2012-05-05 02:35:32

Half good, half bad

Many credits for the first half hour; very good. Then another half houryou're thinking, please, please don't let it be aliens. And then...in the beginning, the story that you know from the trailer is laid outvery rapidly; the kid is no longer on the pictures and she's the onlythat seems to think he ever lived. That start is very good, thereforethe trailer got to me and i saw the movie. however, what they do nothint at (recognise it in hindsight though) is that it is veryalien-related. Only two or three scary shots though. the idea startswith the cloud in the sky and then builds. Never spoken about in themovie, you can't get around it; aliens. it would have been a lot betterif they had used the initial idea (you kid is no longer there and youare the only one who knows he ever lived) and made into an FBI or NSAexperiment instead of an alien one. Awful, awful ending completes thepicture.

teteblonde 2012-05-04 19:42:19

A story of a mother who is sure to have lost his kid but who have kidnapped her !!

Totally awful, a movie of two part the first seems to bring theaudience to a psychological movies but the directors doesn't seems tolook it this way so in the middle of the movies we see a total turn at90 degrees and the movie take another turn because they start to talkabout sciences fiction.The movies is , besides, well directed for some part you seem to go ona thriller with some special and stunning scene but the screenplay isso speeding that you can stay focus on the story and it seems that theywant to put the solutions like there was only this : who might havestole our children if it isn't the government ?! the aliens of coursewhat the alien what the heck happens to the writers at this point theywere so in miss of imagination to put this... ah I was so angry at thispoint that I almost throw my pack of pop-corn and the rest of the movieis in this point so if you have a chance to help someone in a moviestore tell him not to rent this even if he is the no1 fan of JulianneMoore who is not at is best !!

gartner 2012-04-27 17:22:38

Easily forgotten; Don't read this unless you've seen the film!

The never exactly stated but obvious 'Alien' connection isdisappointing and just seems like a cop out. It's almost like thewriter felt he had written himself into a corner and that just makingthe 'bad guys' turn out to be aliens would take care of any loose ends.What we are left with is 'mysterious mean aliens' who can doanything.....except make one human forget loved ones....Why are aliens conducting experiments to see if they can break themother/child bond? Not a clue but who can blame them?....rectal probingonly holds your attention for so long I suspect : ) I've read somepostings which suggest this film as a being in the class of the 6thSense. It's not in the same hemisphere. It's nowhere near asintelligent or meticulous in it's construction and the ending iscertainly no surprise to any one who has ever watched a few X Filesre-runs.what a disappointment!

2012-04-27 06:33:28

laughably bad

this movie is a waste of celluloid and an insult to thousands of better ideas that never got made. A mess - skip it.

Brent Trafton 2012-04-25 08:46:52

Pulp Science Fiction

The Forgotten starts off like a psychological thriller but by the timeit's done, it is so totally ridiculous that it is hilarious. The filmgives you hints throughout that it is really a comedy in disguisebecause the characters say lines that are obviously meant to be funnybut they say them with the utmost seriousness.This film has been compared with the X-Files, but the X-Files alwayshad one eye winking at the camera. I have a feeling that The Forgottenknows all along it is not a serious film but everyone involved plays itstraight all the way to the end. The film starts like the X-Files butends like a David Lynch movie.Julianne Moore is in full tremble-and-weep mode, which is what her fanspay to see. This has been an unusually bad year for thrillers but asbad as this film really is, I actually had fun. I might have liked itmore if they hadn't taken it so seriously and instead let on that thisis really just a fun thriller. 6/10

ROOSTERPDW 2012-04-25 01:06:34

Brilliant!!!

This is one of the best film I have seen for ages!!***May Contain spoilers***The beginning starts off a bit slow but when the action starts it isreally good. There are loads of moments that make you jump out of yourseat(about 8)and you can never guess when they are coming and thejump-out-of-your seat moments keep going to the end. And for once thereis a happy ending.Julianne Moore's performance in this film is brilliant and is one ofher best. If it wasn't for her performance the film wouldn't have beenas good. The story will keep you guessing what is happening and thescript is very good. Overall this is a really good film and i say you should go and see it!I give it 9/10

cwfultz 2012-04-22 22:09:10

Some things left me confused, but otherwise a decent thriller

The Forgotten stars Julianne Moore as Telly Peretta or however youspell it. You know the rest of the cast. Anyway, Telly's son died andshe's really sad about it. Who wouldn't be, right? Then, her husbandcompletely forgets they ever had a son. What nerve!!! Anywho, it allspirals out of control when she visits her shrink. He tells her she hassome kind of condition that I can remember what it is. To make thingsworse, a man whose daughter died the exact time and place as her sonforgets his daughter, her son, and even her. Telly is determined tomake them all remember, and in the process, she uncovers something muchdarker.Ohhh! I loved this movie. It made me jump several times. It was allvery bizarre, somewhat cheesy, but still I won't deny that I wasstartled. I loved how it ended too. More movies should end like this.It was, in my opinion, very original. I don't expect it to be up for anOscar, but maybe an MTV Movie Award. It wins in my book. My rating:9/10. Due to some cheesy cheap scares. Still, you should see thismovie.

2012-04-22 01:38:54

Conspiracy or Insanity?

The "Forgotten is a frustrating and suspenseful film about a woman who loses her son in a plane crash only to find that everyone around her is convinced she never had a son at all and that she is losing her mind. The main character goes to great lengths to preserve/discover the memory of her lost son, even though the people around her are convinced she is crazy.Julianne Moore plays the main character, Telly Parada. She performs her role very well, with plenty of emotion. One of her co- stars, Dominic West who plays Ash Correll, is also pretty good. Ash is a guy who lost a daughter in the same plane crash and he, too, cannot recall ever having a daughter when the two meet for the first time after the accident. But Telly's persistence jogs his memory and he realizes he does have a daughter but he has no idea what has happened to her or what has caused his lapse in memory.This movie offers some good suspense and some good shock value. You don't know exactly what will happen and you find yourself slowly putting the pieces of the puzzle together as the film progresses. And there are some great, shocking scenes. Be careful what you have in your hands when you watch this movie because there is a good chance you will end up wearing any food or drink that happens to occupy your fingertips. On the negative side, this movie has some gaping holes in its plot and it leaves many questions unanswered. At the end, you feel relieved that Telly has found out the truth because you can easily see how this ordeal is driving her (and you) crazy. But you don't feel a sense of completeness with so many unresolved issues/questions. Still, the Forgotten is a fairly good movie. It's not going to take home any Oscars and most avid movie goers will have "forgotten" all about this film a few weeks after viewing. But it still has enough positive qualities to give it a small recommendation.

jamesraeburn2003 2012-04-20 13:10:41

"What would it have been like if Hitchcock had done it?"

New York City: A grieving mother called Telly Paretta (Julianne Moore)lost her nine-year-old son in a plane crash. However, her psychiatristand husband are denying the fact that she ever had a son. A girl whomthe boy was friends with at school was also killed in the accident, butwhen she goes to visit the father Ash Correll (Dominic West), he toodenies that he had a daughter.The solution is preposterous, I won't spoil it for you, but I will goas far to say that it makes the film an uneasy combination ofstraightforward mystery and sci-fi. But there is enough intrigue inthis mystery thriller to sustain the interest of the audience and thisultimately compensates for the general lack of suspense. Goodperformances too especially from Moore and West and it makes one wonderwhat the film would of been like if Alfred Hitchcock had done it.

Yakisoba 2012-04-19 21:01:25

Hehehe . . .

This movie sucks. It's not very intense or suspenseful for a thriller,the acting is just average, the plot is slightly less thin than youraverage piece of paper, and towards the end it just gets ridiculous.I mean, what's up with the people flying up into the air and crap? Thatwas really stupid. And the "climax" was hilarious--which is typicallynot a good sign when the movie is supposed to be a dramatic thriller.The part when the alien-guy said "You will FORGET!!!" and all thewindows shattered and his face turned all ugly was riotously idiotic.And as for the--no, wait! I need to finish this review! Let me--please!Give me more tiiiiime . . . !

2012-04-18 15:11:44

A parent's tie with thier children

I really liked this movie. It does show how strong a parent's tie with thier children certainly are. Watching this movie certainly made me think of all of the parents that have lost thier children via accidents, child abductions or run-aways and how the parents must feel. Appreciation of what you have comes to mind and love the ones that you have, because tomorrow they could be gone. I liked this movie because it told of the "real pain" that Telly was feeling when her child was gone and "others" tried to erase her memories. I did watch the extended alternate ending which I do recommend in seeing. This movie is an on the edge of your seat thriller and I do recommend it to anyone!!!

malcolm nordaby 2012-04-18 00:39:41

in a word (good)

I just saw the movie with my wife and without going into thisdissertation about every little detail , the movie was good my wife andI got our moneys worth, the acting was good the filming was good , andit was very entertaining . I think that everyone thinks there criticsand therefore have to critisice everything like there the panel for theOscars well this movie is by far not an Oscar nomination, but it is afun and sometimes exciting movie and if your there to critisice it ,you certainly wont enjoy it at all . The movie was slow in spots asmost are , most of the time those are the spots that feed youinformation that are pertinent to the movie plot. so sit back open yourears , grab some imagination and popcorn and enjoy the ride