I'll confess that this is not entirely my favorite genre. I like some British costume drama's, as long as they have some quirkiness added to it, such as for instance is the case in such movies as "Barry Lyndon", "The Draughtsman's Contract" and "Dangerous Liaisons". This movie is more in the style and mind of a Jane Austen novel, which is just not the type of movie for which I sit down and enjoy watching.
But nevertheless that doesn't mean I'm totally blind for the quality this movie got made in. Its Oscar nominations; Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, are all certainly ones I can agree with. Add to that the costume design and you have the 5 elements that make this a good and certainly perfectly watchable movie.
What I like about the story is that it features an original love-triangle. It's not the type of love-triangle you would just expect and it also makes the movie as a whole original not entirely predictable to watch. It's well layered and executed in the movie. It however perhaps too long for the movie to take shape. Basically the first halve of the movie totally couldn't interest me and it was standard, slow and just not that interesting. However the second halve, from the moment on the movie gets set in Venice, really made up a lot for me.
The movie is set at the early 20th century, which is not the most usual time period for this type of movie. However, if you would had told me the movie was set in the late 19th century I would had also believed it. Basically it are only the cars and phones that give away that this movie is set in the 20th century. The rest of the movie just feels and looks the same as any other costume drama set during a more common earlier time period. The sets and costumes for this time period are just fantastic. Not just for the Venice sequences but also really for the sequences set in London.
The movie is also not as heavy handed as it might sound and as you perhaps would expect. The movie mostly remains on the shallow safe side, until heads toward its very ending. It often makes this a bland and rather formulaic movie to watch, despite its hospitality. I think you can blame director Iain Softley, who directed his movie rather static and standard. Or perhaps blame the '90's, which just wasn't the most style-full period for movie making.
A good and certainly watchable movie, that perhaps should had been a bit more bold and edgier in its execution.
(Review originally written at 10 June 2007) Plain and simple; this movie just wasn't much good to watch. By no means an horrible movie but just one that lacks about everything needed to make a good decent genre movie. The movie began pretty well. Pretty standard stuff but good and promising nevertheless. The movie however soon starts to go downhill rapidly from the moment on when the movie its 'supernaturual' elements start to appear in to the story. It's just too ridicules and unbelievable all, even for a genre movie such as this one. Aside from its supernatural elements, the movie is formulaic and doesn't offer much real surprises with its story, events and characters. It just doesn't make this movie the most tense or mysterious genre movie around. The story is for too long not heading anywhere interesting. The ending also leaves far too many questions, which makes the ending and overall movie as a whole a quite unsatisfying one to watch. The movie just doesn't always flow well. Some moments even look awkward, due to some weird and bad editing. Since Richard Francis-Bruce is a competent director my guess is that he just didn't had better material to work with and that the director Joseph Ruben is to blame for this bad flow and inconsistency. Julianne Moore still obviously believed in the project. She acted as if her life depended on it. It's painful to watch a good performance in a bad movie. The rest of the actors get mostly pushed to the background. A shame, since it wastes the talents of Gary Sinise and Anthony Edwards, who play far too uninteresting roles. I mean, it are the type of roles basically every actor could had played, just as good and interesting. So for a genre movie it just isn't good enough. It lacks real good tension or mystery and offers too few surprises. Also the fact that the ending isn't overall satisfying is a reason why "The Forgotten" is a typical standard formulaic lackluster genre movie that disappoints. 5/10 Watch trailer
