THE FORGOTTEN

Oh go on then, I?l do it. This trashy, silly, sub-X FILES conspiracy thriller is definitely one you?l?ait for it?orget almost as soon as you?e seen it. In fact, I?e just put the disc back in its box and my memory of it is fading already?n

Which is pretty appropriate really, if envitable, as THE FORGOTTEN (from what I can remember) is all about memory. It seems so promising at the beginning. The bizarrely-named Telly Paretta (Moore) is still grieving for her son Sam who died in a plane crash fourteen months earlier. Her life is falling apart; she? under a psychiatrist (Sinise) and her marriage to husband Jim (Edwards) is suffering from the strain. All she has to keep her going are her memories of Sam and the reminders of him dotted around the house – his photos, his belongings, cherished videotapes. But suddenly they all go missing – the books are blank, the videos are empty. She accuses her husband of erasing every trace of their son from the house but she? stunned to be informed by both her psychiatrist and her husband that Sam never existed, that she never had a son, that it? all some subconscious reaction to a miscarriage. Telly is naturally sceptical and she meets up with Ash (West), the father of a young girl called Lauren who also died in the crash. Ash denies ever having had a daughter but, conveniently, Telly goes on about her so much that the memories come rushing back. In moments Telly and Ash are on the run, pursued by mysterious Government agents who are keen to get them off the streets.

I was quite keen to get this out of my DVD player. If there? one thing I can? abide it? watching a movie – either in the comfort of my own home or in the company of wide-eyed popcorn-munchers in the cinema – and wandering away from the experience muttering ?hat in the name of Dorothy Perkins was that all about???- which, admittedly, I don? do very often. The problem is that THE FORGOTTEN sets up this intriguing mystery of missing kids and meddled-with memories and then has no idea how to resolve it. Moore looks suitably earnest throughout and does her best with some clunky dialogue but too much of the movie is spent with her and West on the run, holing up in motels and meeting up with strangers who insist on speaking in riddles. They become an ersatz Mulder and Scully (but without torches) searching for the truth which, they?e quite sure, is out there.

The truth? Well, I? not sure it?l fit in my brain. I don? think it did at any rate becauseUand here? the rub? have no idea what the denouement of THE FORGOTTEN was suggesting. About halfway through the movie things take a turn for the supernatural with a character referred to in the credits as ?riendly Man?(Linus – son of Ken Barlow – Roache) impervious to bullets and able to make people literally fly into the air and disappear. Telly engineers a final confrontation with FM; he extracts her lingering memories of Sam from her mind but she? powerful enough to hang on to them – and FM flies up through the roof and disappears into the sky! ErUoookay?n

Happy endings all round as Telly returns home and finds Sam still alive and playing on a climbing frame in a park. Ash is there too, as is his daughter Lauren – and none of them are aware of whatever it is that? been going on in the story.

Maybe it? me, maybe I missed something in the narrative which might have explained all this. Was FM some sort of alien? Was the film trying to suggest that alien abductions are something to do with memory? Don? ask me, I didn? understand what the Hell was happening. If anyone out there in scifind land was able to make head or tail of this one, please contact me at our usual e. address because I? be mildly interested to find out what the point of THE FORGOTTEN actually was. Don? put yourselves out, though.

DISC: The transfer handles dreary night-time sequences well and there? a lively sound mix but otherwise nothing to get worked up about. Only extra is a writer/director commentary and what I?e sampled of it seems to be a dry chat-track recounting what? on the screen. No-one tries to explain what? going on. Boo. If you?e thinking of renting or buying this oneUforget it. Arf arf.
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