The Forgotten (2004)

30% of critics liked it
(169 reviews)
47% of users liked it
(166,710 ratings)

A grieving woman must make a journey into her past in this psychological thriller. Telly Paretta (Julianne Moore) is a mother who is struggling to put her life back together after the unexpected death of her eight-year-old son. Telly begins seeing a therapist (Gary Sinise) who offers a startling… More A grieving woman must make a journey into her past in this psychological thriller. Telly Paretta (Julianne Moore) is a mother who is struggling to put her life back together after the unexpected death of her eight-year-old son. Telly begins seeing a therapist (Gary Sinise) who offers a startling diagnosis -- that her son never really existed, and all her memories of the child are products of her imagination. When Telly meets a man with a strangely similar story to tell about his lost child (Dominic West), she becomes convinced that her doctor is wrong, and sets out to prove the existence of her child -- and that she isn't insane. The Forgotten also features Alfre Woodard and Anthony Edwards. An alternate ending exists to this film, which has been released on DVD and purportedly does a great deal to compensate for the story's weaknesses. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 31 min.
Directed By: Joseph Ruben
Written By: Gerald DiPego
Genres: Drama, Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy

In Theaters: Sep 24, 2004 Wide
On DVD: Jan 18, 2005
Studio: Sony Pictures

Critic Reviews

Rex Reed, New York Observer
Moore is too precious a commodity to fritter away her time and talent on a no-thrills thriller as bland and superficial as The Forgotten.
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper
It's very manipulative, it's very maddening -- and yet I found it very entertaining.
Desson Thomson, Washington Post
Slightly predictable and dumb when all is said and done.
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
An uneasy mix between Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the The X-Files, and one not nearly as smart as either.
Brian Lowry, Variety
Perhaps wisely leaves more questions than it answers and for the most part manages to maintain its suspense.
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
It's the central casting of the remarkable Julianne Moore that gives the movie both a core and a heart, particularly when Di Pego's script starts making its way further and further out along the limb of credibility.
Nell Minow, Common Sense Media
Creepy thriller not for faint of heart.
Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com
Who wants to see -- or remember -- a wildly implausible thriller that's also grim and humorless?
Prairie Miller, Long Island Press
Lurking beneath is an equally creepy sense of latent antagonism now, between Mom and the State when it comes to possession rights over human offspring.
Russ Breimeier, Christianity Today
The climax is a disappointment, lacking the quick visual thrills earlier in the movie and failing to answer many key questions raised throughout.
Dragan Antulov, Draxblog Movie Reviews
Few films have title more deserving.
Uri Lessing, www.kcactive.com
Not since Star Trek V: The Final Frontier has there been such a stupid omnipotent force.

Read all 12 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

John M

A very twilight zonish plot with an interesting combination of twists and turns. Not bad not great.
moon r

Julianne Moore is a mother who misses her dead son, which is normal ... until everyone she knows starts to tell her that she never had one. As the story shifts from psychological thriller into the unknown, the fantastic, well, it loses its way, but the actors are still good.
Jameson W

I loved the first half...the pacing especially. The film follows a women who is grieving over the loss of her son, and then during that process, she's informed that her son didn't exist. The plot progressed nicely and was aided by the solid performances by Julianne Moore and… More
I loved the first half...the pacing especially. The film follows a women who is grieving over the loss of her son, and then during that process, she's informed that her son didn't exist. The plot progressed nicely and was aided by the solid performances by Julianne Moore and Dominic West. Then there was sudden shift about 3/4's of the way through the film where it just all went down hill. The plot got really confusing, and then the ending was like...wtf. Overall, a decent and entertaining film, but I was slightly disappointed because I thought it had potential.
Chris W

Boy, this is an odd one. A psychological mystery thriller, this film is about a woman still grieving after the death of her son 14 months later, only for everyone around her to tell her that she never had a son and that she is delusional. Refusing to believe this, she sets out on a… More
Boy, this is an odd one. A psychological mystery thriller, this film is about a woman still grieving after the death of her son 14 months later, only for everyone around her to tell her that she never had a son and that she is delusional. Refusing to believe this, she sets out on a quest to prove she's not crazy, and to figure out why there seems to be a conspiracy out there telling her things she refuses to believe are true. This film is a real head trip, and it has a very Twilight Zone or X Files vibe to it. This film has some neat ideas going on, but ultimately it feels really half-assed, and the way it is handled just makes it all seem more ridiculous than thought-provoking. On the plus side, it does have a great sense of mood, tone, and atmosphere, and the film is never boring. Plus, the film has a good cast, and their acting is good, so that helps. But still, the material needs some work, and it's unfortunate that this film comes off as more weird (in a bad way) and silly. See it if you want, if only for the way it is constructed and the performances, but don't expect the end result to be as brilliant or mind blowing as it could have been.
Eric S

As someone who loves Julianne Moore, I don't know how I missed this one. This film tells the tale of a mother(Julianne Moore) who loses her son and is struggling to put the pieces together as to how it happened. It is believed to be due to an airplane crash, but things don't… More
As someone who loves Julianne Moore, I don't know how I missed this one. This film tells the tale of a mother(Julianne Moore) who loses her son and is struggling to put the pieces together as to how it happened. It is believed to be due to an airplane crash, but things don't quite seem to fit. No one knows what she's talking about including her husband(Anthony Edwards) and her therapist(Gary Sinise), so the psycholoical bounds are tested in the loss of a loved one. She is told again and again that her active imagination is making her believe she had a son that she feels to be an inherent part of her being. As events unfold, the so called truth of her son's existence becomes existent yet non-existent depending on how it is viewed. There inlays the intrigue that's either simply a figment of imagination or of a conspiracy of unknown proportions.
Bethany M

Confusing at times but quite a good film of what I can remember!
♥Robyn

good acting i thought! a mad roller coaster~!
Albert K

I remember this movie was engaging, but it gets way too ridiculous at the end.
Dead A

The ending was confusing. Did they remake the ending or something? Because there was two ending. One was when the mother could remember her son and the person who was testing them just flew away because he failed. And another one was he was there when the mother found her son in the… More
The ending was confusing. Did they remake the ending or something? Because there was two ending. One was when the mother could remember her son and the person who was testing them just flew away because he failed. And another one was he was there when the mother found her son in the playground.
Wahida K

It began so nice then somewhere in the middle of the Movie I got confused, everything went so fast and then this end. I Tiny bit feel I was bugged in the end. Did Ruben decided for different end as the Original one? Will never find out.
Carlos M

What a painful mess! A ridiculous film with awful dialogues and an utterly nonsensical plot that seems like a VERY BAD X-Files episode.
Film C

i like this movie its a good sci fi movie and worth a watch its not the best sci fi ever made or even close but its a watchable movie and worth a watch
Sanjaya &

Well, I must say that I'm impressed with what this movie shows... The story was great, love it... But after the scene started by when the house was gone like it was taken from upstairs, then the people, I don't like it anymore... I think it's just unrealistic, and the… More
Well, I must say that I'm impressed with what this movie shows... The story was great, love it... But after the scene started by when the house was gone like it was taken from upstairs, then the people, I don't like it anymore... I think it's just unrealistic, and the more disappointing is that scene is happened just right after I started to like this movie... When it comes to the ending, it's start to give me another hope just right after the alien took Telly's memory... But what happened later is another flick, all the geniuses story that made before ruined by an ending that's so predictable... Julianne Moore performance didn't help at all, at least if everybody saw this as her first movie, they won't know that she's a four-times Oscar nominated actress... But I'm understand why she didn't gave her best because it's a thriller movie, not a drama one... Overall, it's enjoyable and interesting, but I'm a little disappointed when this movie comes to the ending...
Bannan i

Was interesting to see this all play out.
xGary X

A grieving mother obsessively hangs on to the memory of her son who was killed in a plane crash, only to find all evidence of his existence being stripped away. The Forgotten is very reminiscent of an M. Night Shyamalan film in that it's very well made, nice to look at and is… More
A grieving mother obsessively hangs on to the memory of her son who was killed in a plane crash, only to find all evidence of his existence being stripped away. The Forgotten is very reminiscent of an M. Night Shyamalan film in that it's very well made, nice to look at and is initially very intriguing. There is some really nice direction and the central performance by Julianne Moore is strong, but also like a typical MNS film, the pay off at the end is lacking compared to the promise of the build up. It certainly passes the time likeably enough, but I think many will feel a little cheated by the rather half-hearted explanation for it all.
Lady D

Quite an original concept for a film and great acting once again from Julieanne Moore, certainly worth a watch, but it didn't blow me away.
Curtis L

Um... parts made me jump, so that gets points.
William S

A film that starts off so well and had me gripped. Then it lost it and completely fell apart!
Lafe F

A very strange movie, as a mother searches for her vanished son, which only she can remember. It seems she's going mad, but then she finds proof. The plot takes some wild twists, which I enjoyed.
Dean !

A good thriller which can be a bit slow at times but overall is enjoyable. Very much like an episode of the X-Files.