Audacious 'Forgotten' is a mind-bending thrill of a thriller

Like a lot of movies in the wake of "Memento," the new Julianne Moore vehicle "The Forgotten" starts off as one more thriller that plays with the theme of vanishing memory. But after its intriguing setup, it flies off in a wildly different direction.

MOVIE REVIEW

THE FORGOTTEN

DIRECTOR: Joseph Ruben

CAST: Julianne Moore, Dominic West, Gary Sinise

RUNNING TIME: 91 minutes

RATING: PG-13 for intense thematic material, some violence and brief language

WHERE: Bella Bottega 11, Cinema 17, Crossroads 8, Everett 9, Factoria, Galleria 11, Grand Cinemas, Issaquah 9, Kirkland Parkplace 6, Longston Place 14, Marysville Cinema 14, Metro, Mountlake 9, Oak Tree, Pacific Place, Parkway Plaza 12, Renton Village, Woodinville 12

GRADE: A-

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People who are comfortable only with predictable plot lines, and who recoil at scripts that daringly try to mix genres (and, frankly, that's most moviegoers, which is why Hollywood is a cinema of formulas and sequels), are probably not going to buy it.

But for those of us in the market for something new and different and slightly daunting, the movie is a most pleasant surprise. It struck me as the most exciting and original Hollywood thriller, occult or otherwise, since "The Sixth Sense."

The premise has Moore as a grieving Brooklyn mother who learns from her psychiatrist (Gary Sinise) that the 9-year-old son whose death she can't get past never existed. In a kind of reverse amnesia, she has manufactured memories of a child who died in miscarriage.

Gerald DiPego's script sets up this situation so convincingly, and yet also makes it clear that the woman is not a psycho, that you spend the first 40 minutes of the film ruminating: Now where can this thing go, and how can the filmmakers possibly resolve it?

It's likely that, by the time its opening weekend is half done, the answer to those questions will be all over the Internet and the majority of moviegoers simply will not have the same pleasure of goose-bumpy surprise that I had going in cold at an early press screening.

But even if its impact is lessened by this inevitable process, this film stands as a gripping star vehicle. Moore may be a tad overwrought, but she's agonizingly believable and more compelling than in either "The Hours" or "Far From Heaven."

The film also works as pure spectacle, creating its own Daliesque world and treating us to a succession of white-knuckle chases, more bird's-eye shots than possibly any movie in history (which makes sense in the final context of the story) and one new special effect that jolted me right out of my seat.

All told, "The Forgotten" represents a striking comeback for director Joseph Ruben, whose 1984 "Dreamscape" was proclaimed by Pauline Kael as one of the most "audacious" Hollywood thrillers since "The Manchurian Candidate," but which he was unable to follow up on.

After 20 years of mostly mediocre movies ("Sleeping With the Enemy," "Money Train"), Ruben has returned to his roots with a spiritually similar film that takes us on a bold, thought-provoking ride and proves that, for directors young or old, audacity can pay off.

P-I movie critic William Arnold can be reached at 206-448-8185 or williamarnold@seattlepi.com.