Some days ago I was out with my girlfriend when a strange light hit me and rendered me unconcious. When I came to I found that over an hour had passed and that I was groggy and confused. I then searched the pockets of my coat and found that I had spent £5.50 on a ticket for the Jullianne Moore film The Forgotten leaving me wishing that I HAD been wisked away to Venus by Martians.
Forgive me if the opening paragraph sounds like I'm going to ramble on using smart arsed metaphore to describe the similarities between alien abduction and this film (except anal probing) so I'll begin the review proper by listing the films virtues. Or I would if I could but I honestly can't. The film reads like a mish mash of Not without my daughter and The X-Files sort of like channel hopping between Living TV and the Sci-Fi channel. The lead character (phoned in by Julliane Moore) is unsympathetic, not because of the way she is written but becuase we are given little time or reason to care or understand her character before she is whisked into the movies less than subtle plot line. Even Gary Sinise (as Moores Therapist) can't bring his usually dependable "Sinister person" role up to the standards required to add suspense to this lame conspiricy tale.
The plot, for what it's worth, follows a berieving mother as she attemempts to cope with the loss of her son in a plane crash some six months earlier. However all is not as it seems as it appears someone is trying too erase the memory of her son. She soon joins Alcoholic Ex-Hockey player and fellow berieving parent Ash as they try to discover who is removing thier dead children from history.
Suspense is "ramped" up by the appeance of a sinsister looking bloke in a cardy who appears every now and again (just so you know he's probably in on it) and NSA agents who act as watered down Matrix style agents.
The Running
One important thing you will notice about the film is that Ms Moore Runs. A lot. Even managing to outrun HIGHLY TRAINED NSA agents twice. Yet a little later [Spoiler] She's outrun by a small boy of about nine[spoiler].
Cinematography
I only high light this because of the beautifully shot scene were our two leads escape the NSA in a car. Were by the car drives at a slowish pace through the rain soaked streets of Manhatten, passing through clouds of smoke and looking very nice. For about a minute or two. Almost like oh.....a car advert!!!
Summary
James Horners decent musical score aside you'll be watching a film that features Jullianne Moore running up to people, saying "Have you seen my son?" they say "Who are you?" and she runs away. Over and Over and Over again.
Low point
A very unsubtle shot were a UFO almost decloaks fom behind a cloud. ("So It's got something to do with aliens. Well I never saw that coming!!")
High Point
Watching people getting sucked off by Aliens.
Score: 3/10 - Hard to recommend at all.