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|
The
Power of Parental Love.
There is a connection between parent and child that just cannot be
denied. This film explores that connection. No other relationship
in anybody's life can compare with the parent-child connection.
|
(2004) Film Review |
| This
page was created on September 23, 2004
This page was last updated on
December 28, 2004
—Review by Kevin
Miller
—Review by David Bruce
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections
Dial up modems will take a few moments |
| CREDITS |
|  Directed
by Joseph Ruben
Screenplay by Gerald Di Pego
Cast
(in credits order)
Julianne Moore .... Telly Paretta
Christopher Kovaleski .... Sam
Anthony Edwards .... Jim Paretta
Jessica Hecht .... Eliot
Linus Roache .... A Friendly Man
Gary Sinise .... Dr. Jack Munce
Dominic West .... Ash Correll
Katie Cooper .... Library Clerk
Scott Nicholson .... Cop
Robert Wisdom .... Carl Dayton
Tim Kang .... Agent Alec Wong
Kathryn Faughnan .... Lauren Correll
Alfre Woodard .... Det. Anne Pope
Produced
by
Bruce Cohen .... producer
Todd Garner .... executive producer
Dan Jinks .... producer
Steve Nicolaides .... executive producer
Joe Roth .... producer
Original Music by James Horner
Cinematography by Anastas N. Michos
Film Editing by Richard Francis-Bruce
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense
thematic material, some violence and brief language.
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM,
and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG
|
| TRAILERS
AND CLIPS |
| —Trailers,
Photos |
| CD |
The
Forgotten (Score)
James Horner
|
| POSTER |
|
| AVAILABILITY
ON VIDEO AND DVD |
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|
| SYNOPSIS
|
| What
if you were told that every moment you experienced and every memory
you held dear never happened?
In
Revolution Studios’ haunting psychological thriller The Forgotten,
Telly Paretta (Julianne Moore) is tormented by the memory of her
eight-year-old son Sam’s death in a plane crash 14 months
ago. While trying to work through her grief, and her subsequent
estrangement from her husband Jim (Anthony Edwards), she is informed
by her psychiatrist, Dr. Munce (Gary Sinise), that she is suffering
from delusions, that her son never existed and she is fabricating
his memories. Stunned, she tries to find evidence of Sam’s
existence -- photos, videos, scrapbooks.
But
it has all disappeared.
Telly
is convinced she is going mad until she meets Ash Correll (Dominic
West), the father of one of the other plane crash victims. Together,
they embark on a search to prove the existence of their children
and reclaim their sanity.
|
THE POWER OF RELATIONSHIP
AND CONVERSION
REVIEW BY DAVID BRUCE
Host of HollywoodJesus.com
|
 The
Power of Parental Love.
There is a connection between parent and child that just cannot be
denied. This film explores that connection. No other relationship
in anybody's life can compare with the parent-child connection. |
 The
enemy comes to destroy.
It is difficult to do this review without spoiling some aspects
of the film, but I promise I will not give away the ending. I
do not feel that I am giving away significant spoilers when I
say that the film has to do with extraterrestrials and that for
some reason they are abducting children and then erasing the memory
of those children from the minds of the parents.
How
to talk about spiritual forces
One of the popular ways that our culture talks about spiritual
forces is to speak in terms of extraterrestrials. To ask: "Are
we alone?" cannot be talking only about life in outer space
but also about the existence of God. Sinister extraterrestrials
can be used as a "safe way" to speak of demonic forces.
This is what happens in this story. It's really about spiritual
forces that tend to destroy relationships rather than enhance
them. Many people in our culture have suffered broken relationships
through evil that has taken place in their lives. Sometimes that
evil has nothing to do with us. External evil happens, and relationships
are destroyed. This film examines that kind of evil. It also addresses
the question: How do we overcome this kind of evil? When the evil
has to do with us, we can address it. But when the evil is external,
overcoming it is far more difficult (consider the Holocaust).
|
 How
far would you go to restore a relationship?
The Julianne Moore character, Telly Paretta, teams up with another
parent, Sam, who has also lost a child. Telly realizes that she cannot
restore the relationship with her lost son unless she does so in partnership
(community) with others. Her first problem, however, is to establish
necessary partnerships to help her in her quest. Unfortunately, Sam,
as well as detective Anne Pope, her husband, and her psychologist
are all nonbelievers (they all say she never had a child). Telly must
do the work of a missionary. She must convince (convert) these unbelievers
that something terrible has happened to essential relationships. |
 Sam
is her first convert.
Before the disappearance of the children, Sam and Telly used to accompany
their kids to the park. Somehow, since the disappearance of his daughter,
Sam has taken up drinking, and now denies his daughter ever existed.
He has forgotten. One of the most basic elements in forming a relationship
with anyone is to recognize that other person. Relationship cannot
be fully actualized in an atmosphere of denial. How can anyone have
a relationship with God, for example, if they deny the very existence
of God? Telly brings Sam to a remembrance of his daughter through
an ongoing relationship with him. The people who have the most influence
on us are always those who take time for us, and help us to understand
life. |
 The
influence of the establishment.
Telly is under the care of a psychologist, Dr. Jack Munce, who tells
her that her son is a product of her delusional mind. He tells her
that to be mentally healthy, she needs to come to terms with her
fantasy and begin to understand the difference between what's real
and what's not. The good Dr., as you might suppose, is being the
used by sinister forces to brainwash Telly into believing she never
had a son. The Dr. represents the authorities in our culture who
are more influenced by the institution and the so-called higher
powers behind them. It's a problem of authority over honesty and
true humanity.
The
movie does not dismiss the Dr. as being merely evil. Rather, it
sees him as a human with complex issues going on. Telly continues
her communication with him for the purposes of bringing him around
to fully recognizing and integrating himself with truth. She ultimately
accomplishes this conversion, again, through ongoing relationship.
|
 Detective
Anne Pope is a seeker of truth.
Detective Pope represents a person of unquenchable curiosity and integrity.
She is a person who will not just go along with authority. She is
a person who looks beyond the words that are spoken and tries to discern
the heart. She is a person who acts upon her belief, no matter what
that means, even at the expense of her own life. |
 The
bottom line.
There is nothing more important in life than relationship. A person
who is driven to establish appropriate and meaningful relationships
with those that they love can be a force with unimaginable drive.
Basically, in this film, Telly has to walk over all the power of the
enemy in order to reestablish her most important relationship. Is
this drive enough to overcome the enemies, the extraterrestrials,
who hold her world hostage? Just how powerful is a person who seeks
a relationship that has eternal and universal consequences? That's
what this film is all about. |
 Review
by KEVIN MILLER BLOG
Kevin Miller is a freelance writer, editor,
and educator who has written, co-written, and edited over 30 books,
both fiction and non-fiction. A film reviewer for the past two years,
Kevin is very excited to join hollywoodjesus.com. He currently resides
in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada with his wife, Heidi, and
their children Huw and Gretchen (and one more on the way). They attend
Fresh Wind Christian Fellowship, a non-denominational church that
focuses on reaching the disabled, children, and people who've been
"burnt by the church." To learn more about Kevin, visit
www.kevinwrites.com |
| THE
FORGOTTEN
I
would put The Forgotten into the same category as the recent sci-fi
thriller Godsend. Take
away the modern trappings, and both films could easily have served
as episodes in the original Twilight Zone TV series. That would
be a compliment were it still 1957. Unfortunately, the same plot
devices that worked back then don’t really cut it today. Thus,
even though both The Forgotten and Godsend
still offer a lot of entertainment value, the films ultimately fail
due to half-baked story development and endings that are so conventional
you just wish the screenwriters had thought to give M. Night
Shyamalan a call. That said; The Forgotten
is definitely the superior of the two films. Not only are the premise
and script more compelling, the overall look and feel of the film
make it abundantly clear that director Joseph Ruben is ready to
move on to bigger and better things.
Review
continued here
|
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Private Comments.
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within two weeks.
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