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Forgotten, The
Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment


5.5

based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 109 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Return to Paradise

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for intense thematic material, some violence and brief language

Starring Julianne Moore, Dominic West, Gary Sinise, Alfre Woodard, Linus Roache, and Anthony Edwards

What if you were told that every moment you experienced and every memory you held dear never happened? In this psychological thriller, Telly Paretta (Moore) is tormented by the memory of her eight-year-old son's death in a plane crash 14 months ago. While trying to work through her grief, she is informed by her psychiatrist (Sinise) that she is suffering from delusions, that her son never existed and she is fabricating his memories. (Revolution Studios)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Mystery \| Sci-fi \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Gerald Di Pego
DIRECTED BY:	Joseph Ruben
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 18, 2005 Video: January 18, 2005 Theatrical: September 24, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	96 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It struck me as the most exciting and original Hollywood thriller, occult or otherwise, since "The Sixth Sense."

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Turns out to be a grade-A B-movie that grounds its thrills in particulars of time, place, and character, so that when the time comes to make the leap into the wholly preposterous, we do so willingly. This is a movie that earns our trust -- and then happily abuses it.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

This is a movie that earns its suspense and validates its emotions, especially its examination of the bond between mother and child.

LA Weekly Jon Strickland

Midway through, the plot pulls itself out of its doldrums with a sudden, heart-twisting turn. Ruben still knows how to cut a sequence for maximum jolt, and, ultimately, he and DiPego manage to summon up some of the B-movie paranoia that fueled "The Stepfather," turning in a pleasantly nonsensical roller-coaster ride.

Chicago Tribune Sid Smith

The stylish and imaginative imagery in director Joseph Ruben's film, not to mention the parapsychological twists and mysteries, evoke the work of director M. Night Shyamalan.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Outlandish but gripping paranoid thriller.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Begins as a perfectly reasonable thriller and ends up rather an inane one.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A thriller of carefully cultivated murk. It's enigmatic in the worst sense, in that every explanation for what's going on holds less water than the last.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

Ultimately only Moore, with her eyes always half-damp and voice half-cracked and body language half-mad, keeps the movie on the ground, when it too often threatens to fly into the thin air, where the audience would laugh it off the screen.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

By the self-contradictory and ludicrous end, I had the mixed satisfaction of being proved right in my disappointment. (Di Pego wrote the equally silly "Instinct" and "Angel Eyes," so I can't say I was surprised.)

Miami Herald Peter Debruge

The ending of The Forgotten leaves you feeling the same way, wondering just how much -- if anything -- of what came before actually happened.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Sustains a few icy chills, but a mix of genres muddles the story.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

This could easily go down as the year's best example of solid acting in a wretched motion picture.

Variety Brian Lowry

A spare, streamlined thriller for the conspiracy-minded, Area 51 crowd, The Forgotten perhaps wisely leaves more questions than it answers and for the most part manages to maintain its suspense.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

It's really weird. Has its share of visceral surprises. Slightly predictable and dumb when all is said and done.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

An uneasy mix between "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and the "The X-Files," and one not nearly as smart as either.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The Forgotten is not a good movie, but at least it supplies a credible victim (Moore).

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

There is nothing worse than a thriller that doesn't play fair... The Forgotten is just a big, fat, obvious cheater.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

The picture never comes out from under the weight of its dreariness, despite fine acting, foot chases and conspiracy theories galore.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

The movie works reasonably well at this for its first half, but by then we've pretty much figured everything out.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Director Joseph Ruben's best efforts can't keep Gerald Di Pego's puzzle-picture script from toppling into absurdity as it lurches from melodrama to psychological thriller with supernatural overtones to full-blown exercise in X-Files-style nuttiness.

Empire Will Lawrence

A premise neutered by daft supernatural shenanigans, which raise as many questions as they answer.

Newsweek David Ansen

It's poppycock, but well directed: Ruben delivers two or three guaranteed jolts, which almost make up for the copout of an ending.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

There isn't much here any semi-regular viewer of "The X-Files" hasn't already seen a dozen times before.

Village Voice Mark Holcomb

The resolution is as surprise-free as it is improbably sunny.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Such unabashed ludicrousness can be fun, in a brainless sort of way, especially when it's coupled with lots of sudden defibrillator jolts underscored by crashing cymbals. If there's one thing The Forgotten has, it's plenty of cardiac moments.

USA Today Mike Clark

All this dreary movie has is a terrible whodunit payoff.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

The worst crime perpetrated in the Swiss-cheese screenplay by Gerald Di Pego ("Angel Eyes") is the cynical use of a mother's love for her child as a plot device for an intelligence-insulting sci-fi dud.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The last act, when the movie falls apart like a cheap toy, is both a deus ex machina and an anticlimax.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Though it soon devolves into a laughable mess, The Forgotten at least spends its first 10 minutes or so raising provocative questions.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

My favorite line from the movie: "The god---- truth won't fit in your brain." How's that for cheap gimmicks for getting out of having to make a movie make sense?

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

In the preposterous thriller The Forgotten, a pseudospiritual, mumbo-jumbo, science-fiction inflected mess, the director Joseph Ruben does not just fail to tap into Ms. Moore's talent; he barely gets her attention.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Tedious and incoherent thriller.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

It's "The Sixth Sense" as nonsense, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" without the sunshine. Or the mind.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.5 (out of 10) based on 109 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Tina A. gave it a10:
Are you people insane? This movie was amazing, and one of the best thrillers ever! Ms. Moore was spectacular!

Brian H. gave it a3:
I am now dumber for having watched this. The digital cable review said "watch for the twist ending!" I am still waiting.....for the two hours of my life I wasted on this movie back.

Jack L. gave it a6:
An average movie with alot of potentiel, had the ending been thought out with a bit more realism. Worth a rent if your into these kind of thriller's (like the sixth sense, etc.).

Paul D. gave it a3:
Preposterous & moronic plot foils the best efforts of cast & director.

Jonathan Z. gave it an8:
A movie enjoyed best when you don't know anything about how it will turn out. Too bad the critics (professional and amateur) are giving away the danger. I suspected several people before the film disclosed the villains. And by the way, what's wrong with a deus ex machina once in a while? It was good enough for the ancient Greeks, and their stories certainly stand above most of the garbage our culture produces.

Tyler D. gave it a9:
The Forgotten is a really great movie. It made me jump a few times, especially the transport crash and when the people get blown into the sky. Really great movie!

jc s. gave it a3:
Don't waste your money renting this. think "dude, where's my car". They had similar plots. Two people wake up, forget a bunch of stuff, and soon find out aliens had brainwashed them and stuff. This movie had so many plotholes that it's amazing that it even made it to theatres. If you like a movie that makes you wonder "who, where, why, what, when" after the credits roll, then this movie is for you. I, on the other hand, like those questions to be answered in the movie!!!

Forgotten, The Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment

Forgotten, The
Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment