Last Updated on August 2, 2021
PLOT: Julia is a woman still suffering from the fallout of an abusive relationship. She begins to start her life over with a new found love, a man named David and his young daughter Lily. The only trouble is that Tessa, David's ex-wife, may have deadly plans to get her family back.
REVIEW: There was a time when movies like BASIC INSTINCT or FATAL ATTRACTION really connected with audiences. And if you miss the whole psycho sexual thriller and you are longing for their return, you won’t after you sit through UNFORGETTABLE. This dreadful thriller consists of every familiar cliche that has ever been used in this type of film. Hell, watching this made me miss last year’s THE BOY NEXT DOOR with Jennifer Lopez. And no, I wasn’t a fan of it but it was more fun than this. If you are looking for sexy, you won’t find it here. If you are looking for thrills, well you will come up mostly empty on that as well. And of course, if you are looking for a flick so bad it’s good, this one takes itself far too seriously, and frankly it’s just dull and preposterous. At least it has Rosario Dawson to add a little class to the affair.
UNFORGETTABLE – a title that the filmmakers may soon regret – tells the story of Julia Banks (Dawson) and her new boyfriend David (Geoff Stults). Everything seems to be wonderful for the couple, that is until uptight ex Tessa Connover (Katherine Heigl) begins to cause trouble for Julia. The ex-wife has issues with everything that Julia does, especially when it comes to Tessa’s young daughter Lily (Isabella Kai Rice) – even though Tessa is a terrible parent. Yet as Julia and David move closer to marriage and starting a brand new family, the nutjob becomes increasingly more disturbed. Unfortunately for all involved, Tessa isn’t the most creative when it comes to retribution, and David is kind of a moron who can’t see what’s right in front of him.
Let’s start with the good. Well, you have Rosario Dawson who is solid as a woman terrorized by a crazy person. And ex Charlie’s Angels star Cheryl Ladd steals a scene or two as Tessa’s mom. I would have rather the film been about her instead. That’s the good. That’s it. As far as Dawson is concerned, the actress makes for a great leading lady and I really wish there had been something more for her to work with here. She gives the role far more depth than deserving with this lousy script, so it was sort of easy to actually want to see her beat the crap out of her bizarro adversary.
In another reality, this would have made an interesting sequel to KNOCKED UP. To see Heigl’s Alison Scott dumped by Seth Rogen’s Ben Stone, get all crazy jealous and stalk his new girlfriend. That may have been a better film. This one however, we have Heigl playing crazy all the time. When she combs her daughter’s hair and complains about the tangles, she looks insane. When she is having a drink with Julia with suspicious motives, she looks insane. The actress plays this stale character the same throughout and it is almost laughable. And what the hell is with the goofy, white flowing gowns she wears. What the f*ck is this character? Isn’t she supposed to be scary? Whether it is the script or Heigl herself, it just didn’t work – like at all.
Now let’s get to the film itself. For the first time, legendary producer Denise Di Novi takes on directorial duties. And it’s not good. Then there is the script by Christina Hodson and David Leslie Johnson. It’s pretty bad. This is by-the-numbers thriller material. The only reason this will be UNFORGETTABLE is because you may think back to that goofy performance from Heigl – but you'll probably forget the ironic title and just remember the flick where Heigl went "evil." The vicious acts escalate in obvious ways, so much so you may find yourself frustrated by everyone’s idiotic behavior. There is a husband that is the epitome of that. I literally wanted to slap this guy and scream “Open your eyes you nincompoop!” And what about the wacky best friend who seems to be smarter than everybody else, but rarely does anything about it. This time around it’s Whitney Cummings and she appeared to be in a different film than everybody else.
Suffice it to say, UNFORGETTABLE will be forgotten while on the ride home. It is bland, predictable and occasionally silly – maybe a lot silly. This rarely rises above a generic made-for-cable movie on Lifetime. If you are going to offer up this kind of tale, give the villain in question a little personality. Heigl is especially underwhelming which is unfortunate. I would have liked to see her do more than masterbate while sexting on a Facebook page with Julia's violent ex-lover Michael (Simon Kassianides) while Rosario Dawson and Geoff Stults mate like bunnies. Even the sex in this flick rarely gets above a PG-rating. As mentioned, Dawson and Ladd do as much as they can, and the alt-rock soundtrack wasn’t terrible either. So I guess you have that. Is it worth actually watching? Go back and watch anything else. That’s what I’d recommend.
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