The Ending Spoils It

It's been 14 months since Telly Paretta's son died in a plane crash. As she struggles to cope her psychiatrist tells her that she doesn't have a son, the memories she has are all made up. Telly's refusal to believe that her child is simply a figment of her imagination leads her to discover the truth about what happened 14 months ago.

The premise of The Forgotten is a good one - just what is reality? Can memories be manufactured? are just some of the questions the film tries to answer. Julianne Moore does a remarkable job portraying Telly's pain and anger at finding out her memories of her son are being stolen. She finds an ally in Ash (Dominic West), a father who denies the existence of his daughter but slowly comes to realize that he was made to forget.

I was really enjoying this psychological thriller - it had good pacing, good acting, the suspense was palpable and there were some great chase scenes - until the final reveal. After that plausibility is replaced with ridiculousness and when the reason why the memories were being erased was revealed I almost spit out the drink I was having from the shock that the writer of this movie expected his audience to be so dumb. Just plain lazy writing that totally destroys any enjoyment from the earlier part of the movie.

4/10