Forgetting the Girl (2012)

Forgetting the Girl introduces us to Kevin Wolfe (Christopher Denham), a soft spoken photographer consumed by his need to try to reconcile the traumatic childhood memory of his sisters accidental death. He works in a rented studio space with a chatty and emotionally fragile makeup assistant, Jamie (Lindsay Beamish). Their job brings upon encounters with a flurry of wannabe actresses and models. They fleetingly pass, both into and out of Kevin's life. Kevin addresses the camera directly, with neurotic detail to explain his sometimes unusual, borderline obsessive way with the ladies. We follow Kevin's visits to his last living relative, his grandmother (Phyllis Somerville), his awkward but well-meaning exchanges with potential clients/ potential subjects of a mild infatuation (one of which is Adrienne, played by Anna Camp). He scared her off with his tenacious approach to the post-hookup. He finally catches a break when viable love interest, Beth (Elizabeth Rice) meets him outside a theater and has an actual interest in getting to know him. From this point forward, it becomes apparent that one of these characters are not to be trusted. The GOOD The gore level is set to a minimum. It achieves the same intended result without the use of gratuitous violence. The end. Many viewers will probably predict what will happen, the first 10 minutes in. Well thought out, nonetheless. THE BAD The proclamation power-point presentation. The three P's, if you will. Kevin speaking directly into the camera is reminiscent of a mediocre high-school drama monologue (intentional?). Mawkish is the only way to describe the script. Especially when Jamie repeats the whole "I want to be beautiful for you, Kevin" bit. Involuntary eye-roll. This is Nate Taylor's directorial debut . It's well directed with an intriguing set of characters. Impressive considering it's an independent film with a low estimated budget of only 600K. 6/10

I don't know if I am just expecting more, but this movie just doesn't quite do it. The director really does a great job of getting the reaction shots down, you can see in the faces of all of the cast exactly what the story needs so on that alone this is a very well made film. It just looks so cheap, and webisode like though, and the lead just isn't quite convincing, but I guess the industry sets it's own scale. I did not Enjoy what was delivered to me in the end, and I can not recommend this movie, but if you like artsy pretentious movies then you may have found your new favorite. Really slow, and lost to put is in a nut shell. If you are looking for a flashy puffy happy movie, then this is not it.

Haunted by a traumatic history, photographer Kevin Wolfe (Christopher Denham) struggles to systematically forget all his bad memories, but erasing his past threatens to consume his future.You know, there have been half unicorn, half Pegasus ideas for a long, long time... not least of which is "My Little Pony".I watched this film thinking it would be a horror picture. Turns out it really is not... at all. There is one brief gore moment, but overall the focus is on a man's failure to maintain long-term relationships... and then how he forgets them.The film is beautifully shot, and oddly engrossing. While I could not really recommend it, there was nothing to dislike either... and it was quite a piece of art.

"Forgetting the Girl" is one of those movies that sticks with you long after the credits roll. Not an easy feat, but one that I consider essential for a film in order to remember it, discuss it to death, and even dream about it. Yes, I dreamt about this movie long after I saw it, the visceral images and suspenseful storyline lingering in my mind many a night. Kudos to director Nate Taylor and writer Peter Moore Smith for fashioning a totally original story in this day and age of cookie-cutter flicks.The film starts out as a slightly rom-com look at the life of a New York-based headshot photographer named Kevin (played by the eerie Christopher Denham in a remarkable tour-de-force). Always searching for the perfect girl, perhaps one to take the place of his sister, Kevin asks every photography subject out on a date to mostly awkward results. His lovelorn assistant Jamie, a tough-looking goth girl with her own serious issues portrayed by the extraordinary Lindsay Beamish with a perpetual wounded look in her eyes, will do anything to make Kevin her own, even though she doesn't seem to exist in his eyes. All that changes when one of Kevin's dates goes missing. What follows is a labyrinth of twists and turns that slowly turn into something more powerful and psychologically disturbing than one would expect. In fact, it left me breathless. To give any more plot points away would be a crime, but you can call me guilty of loving this movie."Forgetting the Girl" is one of those singular movies that challenges the viewer to give up all expectations of the norm, forcing one to dive headfirst into the mind of a very complex character. I, for one, was swept away.