I often think someone is playing tricks with my mind -- why else would our local community schedule Octoberfest in September? Or school start before Labor Day? Or Antonio Banderas fail to get the lead in the movie version of Phantom of the Opera? However, Julianne Moore's character faces much more serious mind games in The Forgotten, a film that starts out like a psychological thriller and ends up with a sci-fi punch that almost knocked me out of my theater seat.       

Moore (Far from Heaven) sinks her teeth into the role of Telly Paretta, a mother who’s told she never had the son she’s been mourning since his death in an airplane crash. According to her husband (Anthony Edwards) and her shrink (Gary Sinise), she’s delusional. But Telly knows better-- even if all the pictures of Sam (Christopher Kovalesh) have disappeared. After contacting the father (Dominic West) of a little girl who died in the same plane crash, Telly can’t believe he denies ever having a daughter. She helps him remember, and the two join forces to find out who is intent on erasing  memories of their children and why.

Despite its mystery, thriller and sci-fi trappings, above all, The Forgotten emerges as a tribute to the strength of a mother’s love and courage. Like Kim Basinger’s character in Cellular, Moore’s “Telly” comes across as a mother not to be messed with. Moore’s big eyes become a pool of tears one moment and steely circles of determination in another. Too bad she mumbles so much of her dialogue. In all fairness, perhaps this was the fault of the theater's sound system, and, fortunately, it’s easy to read Moore's expressive face, so I did have some idea of what she was saying throughout the film.   

Because of the nature of the story, director Joseph Ruben (Sleeping with the Enemy) might have been tempted to fill the movie with dark scenes that make it difficult for viewers to tell what’s happening. Thankfully, the film includes only a few hard-to-see sequences -- and some shots even appear downright artistic, such as when Moore looks up at a strange cloud formation. Granted, the house her character lives in exudes a dreary and depressing aura, but that helps viewers get a better feel for this mother's somber mood at the beginning of the movie.

Written by Gerald di Pego (Angel Eyes), The Forgotten creates a rich atmosphere of suspense and mystery. Still, a few things in the story fail to hang together. Explaining them would spoil the movie for you -- so just be prepared for a couple of plot holes big enough to land a flying saucer in. Nevertheless, this is a well-filmed movie that elicits interest and curiosity from beginning to end. Don’t forget to see it.

(Released by Columbia Pictures and rated “PG-13” for intense thematic material, some violence and brief language.)