May 1, 2009 (Austin,
Texas), May 15, 2009 (Los Angeles, California), release dates
Directed
by Dror Soref
Screenplay
by Tomás Romero and Dror Soref
Music by
Mark Isham and Cindy O’Connor
Edited by
Martin Hunter
Cinematography
by Steven Bernstein
Simon Baker as Jack Bishop
Paz Vega as Amaya Bishop
Chloë Grace Moretz as Toby Bishop
Claire Forlani as Katie
Michael DeLorenzo as Casper Navarro
Ken Davitian as Father Salinas
Julia Vera as Doña
Virginia Periera as Karen De La Rosa
Mark Rolston as Agent Wilson
Gedde Watanabe as Agent Nakamura
Melinda Page Hamilton as Deputy
Mindy
Benito Martinez as Detective Sanchez
Jim Meskimen as Redd
Julia Vera as Doña Flores
Zahn
McLarnon as Calvo
Virginia
Pereira as Karen De La Rosa
Daniel R.
Escobar as Hector
Distributed
by Anchor Bay Films
The title of this
film, Not Forgotten, is perfect
because it could apply to anyone in the Bishop family: Jack, his second wife Amaya,
and his daughter Toby. Not forgetting is the reason behind betrayals, revenge,
and almost the entire plot. The phrase “You are not forgotten” usually connotes
a positive, happy remembrance, even love for another, but that couldn’t be
farther from the truth for the Bishop family.
The film opens
with a flashback of a man being strangled. Viewers have no idea who this man is
or what he means to the plot. In fact, opening the film with a sequence that
turns out to be a flashback is very effective in setting up a mood of confusion
and uncertainty, which is one of the reasons I put Not Forgotten in the category of neo-noir.
(This blog post about Not Forgotten contains spoilers.)
The next
time that the film returns to the flashback from the opening, viewers see more
details. This time, the flashback is shown in the context of Jack Bishop going
to Doña Flores, the fortune teller, with his wife for some information about
the disappearance of their daughter Toby. The fortune teller has clouded eyes
(maybe cataracts?), but when she takes Jack’s hand, the physical contact
inspires a vision in which the fortune teller fills in some details about the opening
flashback, not enough to clarify everything for viewers but enough to unnerve
Jack.
Jack returns
to Doña Flores alone and begs for help finding his daughter. Doña Flores tells
him to go back to the darkness that he is avoiding, and Jack returns to Tepito,
Mexico, his childhood home, where he learned about the mysterious Santa Muerte
cult. Santa Muerte is a centuries-old mixture of pagan rituals and Catholicism,
and apparently it is favored by prostitutes and drug dealers. And, it turns
out, Jack is very familiar with all these worlds.
There is a stark contrast between
Jack’s life in Del Rio, Texas, and his return to Mexico. The Santa Muerte
rituals and other religious practices in Mexico add to the disturbing ambience
of the film. The scraggly landscape between Texas and Mexico and the heat,
especially, are integral parts of Not
Forgotten, a film I call film brûlant (“burning
film”) because of its setting and the heat. In spite of the many scenes filmed
at night, it’s almost impossible to forget the heat and the intense pressure
that Jack feels about saving his daughter Toby.
The film
returns to the opening flashback again as Jack prays on the roof of El Diablito,
which is owned by his first wife. This flashback has even more details: It
reveals that Jack strangled the man in the flashback and that his first wife
was with him and a witness to the crime. Jack enters El Diablito to find his
first wife because he believes that she is responsible for the disappearance of
their daughter (Toby is their child, not Jack’s and Amaya’s). Jack then kills
his first wife: another murder for which he is responsible, as far as viewers
know.
Jack
Bishop returns one more time to Casa Doña Flores, and this time the house is
stripped bare. Amaya and her cousin Casper, the sheriff in Del Rio, Texas,
surprise him there, and they reveal to him that Amaya witnessed his murder of
the man—her father— in the flashback. She was the child hiding under the bed. Spurred
on by revenge, Casper beats Jack nearly unconscious, and Amaya sets Casa Doña
Flores on fire. When Jack comes to, he sees that Toby is also in the burning
house and carries her out.
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