What must it be like to be the least known of three main actors in a movie? Ask Geoff Stults. He stars alongside Rosario Dawson and Katherine Heigl in the drama thriller "Unforgettable" (R, 1:40). Heigl is an Emmy Award winner and Golden Globe nominee who is known mainly for her TV roles ("Roswell", "Grey's Anatomy", "State of Affairs", "Doubt"), but has starred in such noteworthy movies as "Bride of Chucky", "The Ringer", "Knocked Up", "The Ugly Truth" and "The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature". Rosario Dawson has played major roles in "Men in Black II", "Sin City", "Clerks II", "Seven Pounds", "Top Five" and "The LEGO Batman Movie". Geoff Stults has done several TV series ("7th Heaven", "Ben and Kate", "Enlisted", "The Odd Couple", etc.), but is only known to movie audiences for small roles in "Wedding Crashers", "She's Out of My League", "The Opposite Sex" and a few others – until 2017. "Unforgettable" is his most significant big screen role to date and I'm happy for him. You see, I know Geoff Stults. I briefly worked with him and the main "Enlisted" cast as that FOX series was being developed. When I saw that he was set to star alongside the likes of Rosario Dawson and Katherine Heigl, I was hoping that I'd be able to give the movie a positive review. I'm thankful to say that I can – and Stults is a big reason why.
David Connover (Stults) is stuck in the middle with them – his ex-wife, Tessa (Heigl), and his fiancée, Julia (Dawson) – and these two women are playing an emotional tug-of-war over him – and his sweet young daughter, Lily (Isabella Kai Rice). Tessa is a beautiful vision of grooming and fashion perfection and she knows how to seem perfect in every other way as well. But underneath it all lies an icy demeanor that leads her to treat her daughter harshly and makes it difficult for her to see another woman take her place as wife and mother. Julia is also beautiful – inside and out – but she's also nervous, as she moves from San Francisco to southern California, preparing to marry David and become Lilly's stepmother. Now, all four of these characters live "together" in a small town where they see each other often, know each other's business and aren't shy about becoming involved in each other's lives especially Tessa.
Tessa and Julia are both emotionally damaged, but while Julia is fighting to break free from her past, Tessa has allowed hers to consume her. Julia had been violently abused by a former lover named Michael (Simon Kassianides), but moving in with David is giving her a real chance to reboot her life, just as her restraining order against Michael is expiring. But Julia has not told David about that part of her past, instead focusing on doing right by David and Lilly in the present (although Lilly is slow to warm up to Julia). Tessa is the personification of the old apple-tree metaphor, when it comes to her mother (Cheryl Ladd), and has become warped to such an extent that she slyly works to undermine David's relationships with Lilly and with Julia. When Tessa steals Julia's iPhone and finds a way to break into it, the plot becomes a case study in identity theft and the hell that can be unleashed by a woman scorned.
"Unforgettable" is a fairly predictable, but well-crafted dramatic thriller. It's fun in the way that a roller coaster ride is fun. There's a slow but steady increase in tension and anticipation as you move forward. Even if you haven't been on this particular ride before, you have a pretty good idea of what awaits you, but the journey to get there and the thrills that you experience can still be pretty enjoyable. This movie's writers, Christina Hodson ("Shut In") and David Johnson ("The Orphan", "The Conjuring 2"), give us characters and situations which are believable and effectively build towards a dramatic resolution. The script, along with the solid work of Denise Di Novi, the long-time producer ("Edward Scissorhands", "The Nightmare Before Christmas", "A Walk to Remember", "Crazy, Stupid, Love"., "Danny Collins") and first-time feature director, give us a movie which feels like a throwback to the crazy jilted lover movies of the 90s (such as "Fatal Attraction"), but adapts the format well to the modern world. The movie is well-cast and the actors are very strong, especially Dawson and Stults, who have good chemistry, feel authentic and command the screen (and Heigl makes a heck of a villain). "Unforgettable" may not quite live up to its title, but it still manages to be an engaging and entertaining genre movie that should help lift the careers of relative feature film newcomers Rice, Kassianides and Stults to even greater heights. "B+"
David Connover (Stults) is stuck in the middle with them – his ex-wife, Tessa (Heigl), and his fiancée, Julia (Dawson) – and these two women are playing an emotional tug-of-war over him – and his sweet young daughter, Lily (Isabella Kai Rice). Tessa is a beautiful vision of grooming and fashion perfection and she knows how to seem perfect in every other way as well. But underneath it all lies an icy demeanor that leads her to treat her daughter harshly and makes it difficult for her to see another woman take her place as wife and mother. Julia is also beautiful – inside and out – but she's also nervous, as she moves from San Francisco to southern California, preparing to marry David and become Lilly's stepmother. Now, all four of these characters live "together" in a small town where they see each other often, know each other's business and aren't shy about becoming involved in each other's lives especially Tessa.
Tessa and Julia are both emotionally damaged, but while Julia is fighting to break free from her past, Tessa has allowed hers to consume her. Julia had been violently abused by a former lover named Michael (Simon Kassianides), but moving in with David is giving her a real chance to reboot her life, just as her restraining order against Michael is expiring. But Julia has not told David about that part of her past, instead focusing on doing right by David and Lilly in the present (although Lilly is slow to warm up to Julia). Tessa is the personification of the old apple-tree metaphor, when it comes to her mother (Cheryl Ladd), and has become warped to such an extent that she slyly works to undermine David's relationships with Lilly and with Julia. When Tessa steals Julia's iPhone and finds a way to break into it, the plot becomes a case study in identity theft and the hell that can be unleashed by a woman scorned.
"Unforgettable" is a fairly predictable, but well-crafted dramatic thriller. It's fun in the way that a roller coaster ride is fun. There's a slow but steady increase in tension and anticipation as you move forward. Even if you haven't been on this particular ride before, you have a pretty good idea of what awaits you, but the journey to get there and the thrills that you experience can still be pretty enjoyable. This movie's writers, Christina Hodson ("Shut In") and David Johnson ("The Orphan", "The Conjuring 2"), give us characters and situations which are believable and effectively build towards a dramatic resolution. The script, along with the solid work of Denise Di Novi, the long-time producer ("Edward Scissorhands", "The Nightmare Before Christmas", "A Walk to Remember", "Crazy, Stupid, Love"., "Danny Collins") and first-time feature director, give us a movie which feels like a throwback to the crazy jilted lover movies of the 90s (such as "Fatal Attraction"), but adapts the format well to the modern world. The movie is well-cast and the actors are very strong, especially Dawson and Stults, who have good chemistry, feel authentic and command the screen (and Heigl makes a heck of a villain). "Unforgettable" may not quite live up to its title, but it still manages to be an engaging and entertaining genre movie that should help lift the careers of relative feature film newcomers Rice, Kassianides and Stults to even greater heights. "B+"