Unforgettable – Review

Unforgettable

with Ray Liotta, Linda Fiorentino
Directed by John Dahl
 (MGM/UA)
by Mark Phinney

I had high hopes for either great new film noir or a Ray Liotta comeback, since he hasn’t had a decent role since Good Fellas. A medical examiner’s (Ray Liotta) wife is murdered and the authorities try to pin the blame on him. He meets a researcher named Martha Briggs (down-played by Linda Fiorentino, who looks more like Talia Shire than the bad-ass sexpot we’re used to). Martha has been testing a memory serum on lab rats that not only plants other people’s memories into your head, but lets you experience all their emotions and feelings as well. Ray convinces Martha to test the serum on him so he can experience his deceased wife’s memories and try to catch her killer, and he soon takes on the persona of an obsessed husband. The acting is so overboard that the film becomes very Abbott and Costello-esque, with Ray and Linda on the run from the memory Feds. At this point, the movie just couldn’t muster enough sanity to be believable. Overdone and over-exaggerated, this film doesn’t live up to its title.