Tagline: What if you were told that every moment you experienced and every memory you held dear never happened?
In New York City, Telly Paretta has been under the psychiatric care of Dr. Jack Munce for fourteen months, the therapy to help her deal with the grief associated with losing her nine year old son, Sam Paretta, one of six children in a plane that went missing, the plane and the bodies never recovered.
In the words of Telly’s husband, Jim Paretta, Telly has been holding onto the past like a “death grip”, which has hindered her therapy. Telly does not appreciate that characterization as it makes it sound like Dr. Munce and Jim want her to forget Sam. Slowly, incidents make it seem like Telly is losing that grip on the past, until one day all physical evidence of Sam disappears, personal as well as public, such as all media stories of the plane disappearance. Subsequently, Jim and Dr.
Munce try to explain to her that her therapy is to help her get over the delusion that she and Jim have/had a son. As Telly alone goes on a search for any evidence of the existence of Sam, the only person she is eventually able to convince is Ash Correll, an ex-New York Ranger whose daughter Lauren allegedly was also one of the missing children. Ash, who started to drink heavily fourteen months ago, initially believed Telly to be crazy until he slowly recalls that he did indeed have a daughter named Lauren who disappeared in that plane, which led to his drinking.
Telly and Ash need to go on the run as they are being pursued by the National Security Agency (NSA) on the matter, they’re unsure of the NSA’s involvement in their children’s disappearance. One other person they are able to convince of there ever having been a Sam and Lauren is NYPD Detective Ann Pope. Pope believes that two people having the same delusion is too coincidental, and the NSA being involved is too suspicious for it not to be some grand plot. Pope has to figure who she can or cannot trust in the matter in uncovering the truth. As Telly and Ash continue their search for evidence while eluding the NSA, they believe that the answer may lie with the mysterious man who seems to have appeared lately in Telly’s day-to-day goings-on.
The Forgotten is a 2004 American science fiction psychological thriller drama film directed by Joseph Ruben and starring Julianne Moore, Dominic West, Gary Sinise, Alfre Woodard, Linus Roache, and Anthony Edwards. The film’s plot revolves around a woman who believes that she lost her son in a plane crash 14 months earlier, only to wake up one morning and be told that she never had a son. All of her memories are intact, but with no physical evidence that contradicts the claims of her husband and her psychiatrist, and she sets out in search for solid evidence of her son’s existence.
The film was produced by Revolution Studios for Columbia Pictures and was released in the United States and Canada on September 24, 2004. It opened September 24, 2004 in the United States and Canada and grossed $21 million in 3,104 theaters its opening weekend, ranking #1 at the box office. The film cost $42 million to produce and it eventually grossed $67.1 million in the U.S. and Canada and $50.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross of $117.5 million.
Altered States
Motion pictures, at their best, can transport the viewer into an altered state, so it’s only fitting that screenwriter Gerald DiPego took his inspiration for The Forgotten from a dream. In the dream there was a family photograph — a mother, a father and a young son. Slowly, the son’s image began to fade, finally disappearing.
DiPego jolted awake. He looked at the clock. It was 6:30 in the morning. He remained fixated on the distressing image in the dream and started to build on it. By 8:30, he recalls, he woke up his wife and told her “I think I have a story.”
The result was a psychological thriller unusual in its focus and unique in approach. DiPego handed the finished script to his agent who suggested Revolution Studios chairman Joe Roth might be interested. Within 24 hours, Roth bought the script and approached director Joseph Ruben, who had directed the hit Julia Roberts film Sleeping With the Enemy when Roth ran 20th Century Fox.
“What immediately got to me was the emotion at the core of the story,” says Ruben, “the struggle of a mother to save her child. It was driven by the kind of primal feelings that immediately draw the audience in and touch them emotionally.”
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The Forgotten (2004)
Directed by: Joseph Ruben
Starring: Julianne Moore, Dominic West, Gary Sinise, Alfre Woodard, Anthony Edwards, Jessica Hecht, Linus Roache, Katie Cooper, Robert Wisdom, Alfre Woodard, Kathryn Faughnan
Screenplay by: Gerald Di Pego
Production Design by: Bill Groom
Cinematography by: Anastas N. Michos
Film Editing by: Richard Francis-Bruce
Costume Design by: Cindy Evans
Set Decoration by: Susan Bode
Art Direction by: Paul D. Kelly
Music by: James Horner
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense thematic material, some violence and brief language.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios
Release Date: September 24, 2004
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