Review for Not Forgotten

Jack Bishop (Simon Baker) seems to have the idyllic life, a loving wife (Paz Vega) and a beautiful daughter. His life seems to be perfect until one day it is all torn apart as his daughter is kidnapped. In order to find her, Jack must reach out to the dark Mexican underworld and encounter the mysterious religion of La Santa Muerta for clues or hope in finding his daughter. During all this, the Police and FBI begin investigating and look deeper in Jack's past and find many skeletons that he really should have kept buried.

I have to say I'm a little confused by this film. I can't decide whether I enjoyed or not and the more I think about it, the more I start leaning towards the 'not' answer. This is not to say that this isn't a masterfully made thriller, it is. It's just after watching Not Forgotten this thought came into my mind: 'What exactly did I just watch?' This is not the reaction you usually have at the end of a film. I think the problem with this film is that I have no idea what the film was trying to be. It is sold as a 'kidnap and revenge' film similar to Payback or Taken, but actually comes off more like Angel Heart mixed in with an episode of CSI with a look at pagan rituals and mystical forces. The weaving of the past and the present is neither effective nor logical and at times I had to pause the film just to think about what it was that I was watching.

The other problem with the film is that it is too short. At just over ninety minutes you don't have enough time to actually get attached or even relate to any of the characters and by the end you don't really care what happens to them. As for the ending, I get the feeling that Writer/Director Dror Soref, who was known mainly as a music video and commercial director, has been watching one too many M. Night Shyamalan films. However, unlike that Director, this film can at least be watched more than once without the twist ruining the experience. It's just a shame that the film isn't good enough to warrant a second viewing.

The only extra on the disk is a less than seven minute Behind the Scenes, which when I think about it is simply not enough. Although I wasn't a big fan of the film, I have to say the actual design and overall aesthetic is fabulous, the score is eerie and the acting is superb and it would have been nice to have acknowledged some of this hard work with at least an hour of interviews or even a commentary with Soref and Baker discussing the film. Instead we get the typical sound bite interviews from various cast members accompanied by various shots from the film that is as lazy as the writing of the film itself.

Sadly, Not Forgotten kind of makes me wish I had.