Not Forgotten (2009)

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.

Just when everything seems to be resolved in Not Forgotten and Jack can relax again, more questions are raised by his daughter Toby. Jack saves his daughter, but she has been initiated into the Santa Muerte cult, and it is implied by the film’s ending that this initiation will haunt their relationship and that Jack won’t be able to escape his past, no matter where they go.