Friday, January 25, 2008

the forgotten


Telly Paretta (played by Julianne Moore), is still grieving for her 9 year old son, Sam, who died in a plane crash 14 months ago. While trying to come to terms with her grief, she becomes estranged from her husband Jim (Anthony Edwards). She is then informed by her psychiatrist (Gary Sinise) that her son never existed and was simply a figment of her imagination (she was even told by Jim that she suffered a miscarriage). She tries to find evidence that her son had existed, but it has all vanished.

Despite others, including her husband and psychiatrist, telling her that she never had a son, Telly is convinced that he did exist. She goes to the home of Ash Correll (played by Dominic West), father of one of the other plane crash victims, and finds that he doesn't remember her, her son, or even his daughter Lauren. However, Telly finds clues which point to the lost children's existence. Furthermore, Ash started drinking heavily after his daughter died, which Telly knows, but he doesn't remember why he started. Ash goes to call the police to tell them there's a mad woman in his house. Telly goes into Ash's office, which used to be his daughter's room, and tears down the wallpaper, revealing his daughter's walls with her drawings on them. When she shows Ash, he remembers. After that the police come and Telly runs, Ash runs after them. Afterwards, Telly and Ash get into Ash's car and drive off.

Running from the police who are chasing them, they accidentally run down a man, who later gets up and walks away without a scratch on him. Eventually, through the interrogation of an NSA agent who was tracking them, the two parents discover that aliens were behind the children's disappearance in order to carry out an experiment. Before he can tell them anything more, he is sucked into the sky by an unseen force, his last words being "They're listening".

In desperation, they go to the offices of the airline that ran the flight on which their children "died". It is in administration following bankruptcy, but Telly, thinking quickly, pretends to be the personal assistant of Mr. Shineer, the airline's manager, and scams the address he lives at off an accountant found in the head office. Going to that address, Telly remembers that an odd, friendly man was near Sam the last time she saw him, at the same time Ash finds a picture of him on the mantlepiece of the now-abandoned house.

A police detective and Telly's psychiatrist are in pursuit and arrive at the airline manager's house. The detective, Anne Pope (Alfre Woodard), sees the odd man, who ignores her threats to shoot him if he doesn't stop walking. She makes good on them, but the wounds heal instantly, and he walks away with a sardonic look. Now believing Telly, Pope confronts her and confesses that she believes Telly, and says she will help her, but is sucked into the sky before she can make good on this promise, her last words being "We will find your son-".

Returning to Ash's apartment they are again confronted by the odd man. He taunts them, but Ash throws himself and the man out of a window, being sucked into the sky. Telly runs down to the street to find no trace of either. Her psychiatrist tries to persuade her to go to the police, but she ends up forcing him to take her to the airline's hangar instead. There they once again see the odd man, and the psychiatrist reveals that he knows of the experiment, but cannot convince the nameless man to stop it.

Telly sees her son running through the hanger, and pursues him. He ignores her calls and continues running. Suddenly, the nameless alien appears in front of Telly and explains that Telly, not her son is the experiment. They are examining the connection between mother and child, the energy of which they are able to measure. He also explains that he is responsible for the results of this experiment and yells at Telly that she needs to forget. Telly runs away but is grabbed by the throat by the alien man. He tells her to remember the first time she saw Sam. As she remembers Sam's birth, the scene is wiped black. Telly collapses on the floor.

Telly is on the floor of the hanger, and cannot remember her son or his name. Suddenly, she remembers being pregnant and again stands up to face the alien man. She says Sam's name and defiantly shouts at him that "[she] had life in [her]" and sounds of the alien presence begin to emerge. The alien man begins to implore that he needs more time, but it is too late. He is sucked into the sky.

Telly goes to her house yelling Sam's name, but it is empty. She then runs to a children's playground. Sam finally appears and Telly embraces him.

She approaches Ash, who is sitting on a nearby swing. He has no memory of her. The two converse, smile and shake hands.

An alternate ending included on on the DVD release of the movie changes the ending slightly. Instead of Telly chasing her son and losing him, only to be confronted by the alien scientist, she chases her son into a reproduction of his bedroom inside of the hangar. She calls his name and attempts to run to him, but is stopped by an invisible barrier that electrocutes her. The alien scientist walks up behind her and explains that her son is living life normally as far as he knows and can neither see nor hear her, and begins asking her questions about her son which she cannot answer as he apparently takes her memories from her. She then continues attempting to reach her son, and continues getting electrocuted, as the scientist tells her that she would not have to suffer if she only would forget, and that she does not have to kill herself. However, she continues on until she blacks out for a moment, and wakes back up lying on the cement floor in the middle of the hangar. As with the theatrical ending, the scientist asks her what her son's name is, she forgets, but has a flashback to being pregnant with her son and remembers everything. The scientist says that the experiment is finally over, and that she will be the only one that remembers. As in the theatrical ending, Telly runs back to her house and finds Sam in the playground - however, she also sees the scientist watching her one last time before he walks off.
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