Perhaps it’s from having watched Fox TV’s excellent
mini-series Feud, the chronicle of the fierce rivalry between Joan Crawford
and Bette Davis that occurred during the making of What Ever Happened to Baby
Jane? that put me in the mood for Denise Di Novi’s Unforgettable. Then again, I may have just wanted to turn my
brain off at the end of a long day and take in a guilty pleasure. Whatever the case may have been, this
potboiler proved to be much more entertaining that I thought it would be, what
with it being yet another foray into the cinematic world of the crazed ex who
takes to stalking their replacement.
The victim in question is Julia Banks (Rosario Dawson) and
as the film begins, she’s in a bit of a jam.
A man who’d once stalked her has been found dead in her home and she has
no explanation as to how he came to be there, despite the authorities having
what looks like ironclad evidence to prove she lured him to the house. It doesn’t look good for the beleaguered
woman and through an extended flashback, we find out how she came to be in the
predicament she’s in. Seems she crossed paths with Tessa Connover (Katherine
Heigl), the ex of her fiancé David (Geoff Stults), and despite appearances
isn’t quite over the father of their daughter Lily (Isabella Kay Rice). An initial meeting between the two is awkward
but goes well and things seem okay…for a while.
However, once Tessa learns that there’s a wedding in the offing, she goes
into a vicious, downward spiral and the only cure is to get her competition out
of the way with extreme prejudice.
The script by Christina Hodson and David Johnson follows the
blueprint for films of this sort to a tee. As Tessa’s actions become increasingly
more violent, Julia’s becomes more desperate until things reach a critical
mass. However, credit must be given for the interesting variations the writers
bring to the story. Julia, a victim of
domestic violence, is a damaged yet strong woman who’s trying to get her
equilibrium back. Conversely, Tessa’s
psyche is far from healthy either.
Having had to endure her mother’s (Cheryl Ladd) constant criticism and
insistence on perfection her entire life, she’s become an exacting woman who
demands excellence of herself and all those around her, becoming a mirror image
of her parent. In a sense, these women
are on equal footing, each injured by those they came to trust and love.
Credit Heigl and Dawson for not resorting to a melodramatic
approach, each of them effectively grounding characters that could easily have
been rendered as stereotypes. As Tessa, the former star of Grey’s Anatomy takes a realistic and effective approach, showing cracks in the character’s
polished veneer, especially when she’s subjected to her mother’s censure. In showing us what makes this character tick,
Hodson and Johnson provide more background than what’s usually present in film
of this sort. We may not condone what
Tessa does, but at least we have some inkling as to why she’s doing it.
Ultimately, Unforgettable can’t fully escape its tawdry
roots but in the end, it doesn’t really matter.
This is the sort of movie you wallow in, enjoying it because of its
cheap qualities, chomping on popcorn and washing it down with diet cola all the
while. You may not admit to liking it or
recommend it to a friend, but you’ve probably sat through movies of a higher
pedigree and had far less fun. I suppose
it all evens out in the end.
This article appears in Apr 27 – May 3, 2017.
