When a single mother, Telly Paretta, loses her 9-year-old son Sam, she seeks the help of a psychiatrist to cope with the pain of her grief, only to be told that her son is merely a figment of her imagination, with her mind making up nine years of false memories. When she meets a father who has had another similar experience with his own disappearing daughter recently, the two team up to try to find the answers behind the mystery but they may not be ready for what they discover.

Why, do makers of trailers feel they need to ruin movies for you by giving away too much or revealing all the funny parts of a movie? I would like to find the makers of the trailer for the Forgotten and beat them within an inch of their lives for spoiling so much of this movie. The movie was absolutely incredible and one of those kinds of movies that is all developed around suspense and the plot twists and by giving away too much in the trailer they ruin a lot of the effects of the movie as well as the major twist. This is a movie that is a thriller with one particular twist that just blows you away, but the trailer let me know ten minutes into the film what was going to happen rather than let me discover it on my own. If you are going to see this movie I would see it as clean as possible and knowing as little as you can because the movie develops in such a wonderful way that knowing as little as possible about the movie before going in is a wonderful treat. This is why my synopsis for the movie is so short I don’t want to give too much away; I’d rather let you discover it for yourself while watching the movie.

I am not much of a fan of Julianne Moore but I was blown away by her performance in this movie, as she just seems to capture a feeling of desperation and willpower to not let go that just emanates from screen. It is easily one of her best performances of her career as she just draws you into the movie and is so believable in the role it is not hard to surrender disbelief and see her as Telly a woman who has recently lost her son. But she is not the only one that does a great acting job in the movie, as all the other actors just seemed to compliment her with such ease. From Gary Sinise’s psychiatrist to Dominic West who has also lost a child to Alfre Woodard her husband that lets himself forget, the entire cast does a great job at drawing you into the movie.

I loved the movie as it a great mix of suspense and thrills and keeps you guessing at what might happen even though you already kind of know what is going to happen. The movie takes on more of an Alfred Hitchcock kind of feeling as it leads more by suspense and the feeling emanating from the actors and the screen and less by special effects that too many directors rely to heavily on when making movies like this. See the movie but don’t see the trailer before you go.
4 stars out of 5