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Forgotten, The
EMAILPRINTColumbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 34 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 109 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Mystery | Sci-fi | Suspense/Thriller
Written by: Gerald Di Pego
Directed by: Joseph Ruben
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 24, 2004
DVD: January 18, 2005
Running Time: 96 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
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)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Return to Paradise
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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."
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Begins as a perfectly reasonable thriller and ends up rather an inane one.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.)
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Sustains a few icy chills, but a mix of genres muddles the story.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
This could easily go down as the year's best example of solid acting in a wretched motion picture.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
It's really weird. Has its share of visceral surprises. Slightly predictable and dumb when all is said and done.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The Forgotten is not a good movie, but at least it supplies a credible victim (Moore).
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Empire Will Lawrence
A premise neutered by daft supernatural shenanigans, which raise as many questions as they answer.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Mark Holcomb
The resolution is as surprise-free as it is improbably sunny.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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?
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
It's "The Sixth Sense" as nonsense, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" without the sunshine. Or the mind.
What Our Users Said
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!!!
