The Forgotten (film)

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The Forgotten
Image:The Forgotten poster.JPG Promotional poster for The Forgotten
Directed by	Joseph Ruben
Produced by	Steve Nicolaides, Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks, Joe Roth
Written by	Gerald Di Pego
Starring	Julianne Moore Anthony Edwards Lee Tergesen Alfre Woodard Gary Sinise Linus Roache Dominic West
Music by	James Horner
Cinematography	Anastas N. Michos
Editing by	Richard Francis-Bruce
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures (USA, theatrical), Sony Pictures Entertainment
Release date(s)	2004
Running time	91 min
Country	Image:Flag of the United States.svg USA
Language	English
Budget	$42,000,000 (estimated)
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Forgotten is a 2004 American psychological thriller, directed by Joseph Ruben. The majority of the movie was filmed in New York City.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Critical reception
4 Box office performance
5 Quotes
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Plot

Telly Paretta (played by Julianne Moore), is still grieving for her 9 year old son, Sam, who died in a plane crash 14 months ago. While trying to come to terms with her grief, she becomes estranged from her husband Jim (Anthony Edwards). She is then informed by her psychiatrist (Gary Sinise) that her son never existed and was simply a figment of her imagination (she was even told by Jim that she suffered a miscarriage). She tries to find evidence that her son had existed, but it has all vanished.

Despite others, including her husband and psychiatrist, telling her that she never had a son, Telly is convinced that he did exist. She goes to the home of Ash Correll (played by Dominic West), father of one of the other plane crash victims, and finds that he doesn't remember her, her son, or even his daughter Lauren. However, Telly finds clues which point to the lost children's existence. Furthermore, Ash started drinking heavily after his daughter died, which Telly knows, but he doesn't remember why he started. Ash goes to call the police to tell them there's a mad woman in his house. Telly goes into Ash's office, which used to be his daughter's room, and tears down the wallpaper, revealing his daughter's walls with her drawings on them. When she shows Ash, he remembers. After that the police come and Telly runs, Ash runs after them. Afterwards, Telly and Ash get into Ash's car and drive off.

Running from the police who are chasing them, they accidentally run down a man, who later gets up and walks away without a scratch on him. Eventually, through the interrogation of an NSA agent who was tracking them, the two parents discover that aliens were behind the children's disappearance in order to carry out an experiment. Before he can tell them anything more, he is sucked into the sky by an unseen force, his last words being "They're listening".

In desperation, they go to the offices of the airline that ran the flight on which their children "died". It is in administration following bankruptcy, but Telly, thinking quickly, pretends to be the personal assistant of Mr. Shineer, the airline's manager, and scams the address he lives at off an accountant found in the head office. Going to that address, Telly remembers that an odd, friendly man was near Sam the last time she saw him, at the same time Ash finds a picture of him on the mantlepiece of the now-abandoned house.

A police detective and Telly's psychiatrist are in pursuit and arrive at the airline manager's house. The detective, Anne Pope (Alfre Woodard), sees the odd man, who ignores her threats to shoot him if he doesn't stop walking. She makes good on them, but the wounds heal instantly, and he walks away with a sardonic look. Now believing Telly, Pope confronts her and confesses that she believes Telly, and says she will help her, but is sucked into the sky before she can make good on this promise, her last words being "We will find your son-".

Returning to Ash's apartment they are again confronted by the odd man. He taunts them, but Ash throws himself and the man out of a window, being sucked into the sky. Telly runs down to the street to find no trace of either. Her psychiatrist tries to persuade her to go to the police, but she ends up forcing him to take her to the airline's hangar instead. There they once again see the odd man, and the psychiatrist reveals that he knows of the experiment, but cannot convince the nameless man to stop it.

Telly sees her son running through the hanger, and pursues him. He ignores her calls and continues running. Suddenly, the nameless alien appears in front of Telly and explains that Telly, not her son is the experiment. They are examining the connection between mother and child, the energy of which they are able to measure. He also explains that he is responsible for the results of this experiment and yells at Telly that she needs to forget. Telly runs away but is grabbed by the throat by the alien man. He tells her to remember the first time she saw Sam. As she remembers Sam's birth, the scene is wiped black. Telly collapses on the floor.

Telly is on the floor of the hanger, and cannot remember her son or his name. Suddenly, she remembers being pregnant and again stands up to face the alien man. She says Sam's name and defiantly shouts at him that "[she] had life in [her]" and sounds of the alien presence begin to emerge. The alien man begins to implore that he needs more time, but it is too late. He is sucked into the sky.

Telly goes to her house yelling Sam's name, but it is empty. She then runs to a children's playground. Sam finally appears and Telly embraces him.

She approaches Ash on a swing. He has no memory of her. The two converse, smile and shake hands.

[edit] Cast

Julianne Moore – Telly Paretta
Christopher Kovaleski – Sam
Jessica Hecht – Eliot
Gary Sinise – Dr. Jack Munce
Alfre Woodard – Det. Anne Pope
Anthony Edwards – Jim Paretta
Dominic West – Ash Correll
Linus Roache – "A Friendly Man" (Mr. Shineer)
Lee Tergesen – Al Petalis

[edit] Critical reception

Critics gave the film generally negative to mixed reviews. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 31% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 166 reviews.^[1] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 43 out of 100, based on 34 reviews.^[2]

[edit] Box office performance

The film opened September 24, 2004 in the United States and Canada and grossed $21 million in 3,104 theaters its opening weekend, ranking #1 at the box office.^[3]

The film cost $42 million to produce and it eventually grossed $67.1 million in the U.S. and Canada and $50.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross of $117.5 million.^[4]