Forgotten, The

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.