It seems like I've been rating a lot of movies this way lately, when actually I liked them more than this. Thus is the case with "The Forgotten."

"The Forgotten" is about a would-be mother, named Telly, suffering from delusions of raising a nine year old boy. Everyone in her life, her husband, her therapist, her neighbor says she miscarried and never had a son named Sam. However, her connection with the child is very strong and she continues to find questionable evidence her son is NOT a figment of her defense mechanisms.

Such evidence comes in the form of Ash, ex-New York Ranger and father of Sam's play friend, who also lost a daughter. Except, Ash doesn't remember ever having a daughter.

Both children were taken on a charter plane, which eventually turned up missing and later found crashed with no survivors.

Ash finally remembers his child, and now the National Security Agency is looking to nab Telly, he helps her run off so they can figure out what happened to their kids, and why NSA wants to speak with them. Of course, Telly say the words "Alien Abduction," which becomes the storyline from that point on.

Writing out the storyline makes the film sound completely haoky, but honestly, its presented with much more quality.

Julianne Moore (Boogie Nights) stars as Telly, while Dominic West (Mona Lisa Smile) plays Ash. Both did fine. In fact, West kind of ate up Moore in their scenes together. Moore was solid in her unspoken performance. Her role required showing a lot of forethought, which she did.

Also in the cast was Alfre Woodard (Heart and Souls) as a police detective searching for the estranged mother, Gary Sinise (Forrest Gump) as Telly's therapist and Anthony Edwards (TV's ER) as her husband.

The picture is presented as a thriller, but doesn't create much tension with its story or style. There is more tension create by chase scenes rather than fear of danger.

There are a few holes in the writing also. We never get to know where the kids were supposed to be going when boarding the charter plane. This would have been a BIG rock for Telly and Ash to look under, since eventually they believe their children to still be alive. If that's how you--as a parent--would feel, you would definitely investigate if the flight and destination had anything to do with the disappearance of the kids. That is basic sense and lost in the picture.

However, the story does examine the charter plane, but the destination wasn't even mentioned. It made me curious, and the film didn't give us any info about it.

Outside of little holes in the story's background, scenes of running around seem to get old. Too many chases and not enough substance. The storyline is very simple, and filmmakers had to fill their contracted time with chase scenes. It's been seen many, many times before.

On a more promising note, even when the movie became about aliens from outer space, it never focused on the aliens, just the search for the children and the NSA's involvement. It wasn't about what the aliens looked like. It wasn't about big visual effects models of an alien ship. It was about Telly refusing to let go of her son.

In the end, that is the clearly stated message of the movie. A mother's bond with her son is unbreakable, even when the son is taken from her. The movie is kind of a far fetched way to make such a human statement, but for the most part, the picture was pretty fun to sit through.

My suggestion is to see "The Forgotten" when you have a chance. It's just THAT much more original than your typical alien abduction movie. However, my hunch says this picture will have a fate the same as its title.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?