I'm a big sci-fi fan and i love Moore, but this is one of the stupidest movies I have ever seen, because although the first 2/3 is really good, the 3rd part of the movie is so idiotic. In the first 59 minutes you are led to believe there is some kind of govmt conspiracy. But it derails at the 60th minute when a house gets blown apart in a very "alien" way and at 20 min before the end people are impervious to gun shots and others get sucked into the sky. But not the 2 heros. It then becomes apparent that conspiracy is not govmt but aliens doing some experiment on us and the two heros. So might as well try to kill them to make the experiments work, right? And if you have enough power to suck people into the sky, it's pretty obvious what would happen rather quickly to the two hero rebels but no, people right in front of them get sucked into the sky but not them, oh is it because they are part of the experiment? like subjecting someone to this kind of experience isn't going to have an effect on the results of the experiment? So the story falls apart in the last 30 min, and completely ruins the first 60min watching. What a waste of time. I can't believe the 7's and 8's I've seen in these reviews, maybe it's the aliens doing another experiment. I would give this movie a 5 star out of 10 at most, and only because acting and action is very good in first 2/3. I'm glad to see the average is below 6, maybe our race is smart enough to fight an alien invasion after all.The only reason I'm taking this much time writing a review for such a bad movie is because of how bad it is, I feel sorry for anyone who's going to watch this as there are so many great movies out there yet so little time, you don't have time to waste on this kind of brain rot. I bet Moore has no recollection of having been in the movie, just like in the movie... it's been erased from her brain by aliens to help her cope with the embarrassement! Maybe she stopped reading the script halfway, she must have been furious when on the set!

Julianne Moore is the mother of a nine-year-old boy, estranged from her Wall Street husband. The son is tenderly put on board a flight that disappears and is forgotten. Moore is frantic, along the lines of, "Where is my CHILD?" Seeking succor from her husband, she finds that he claims they never had any children. A shrink, Gary Sinese, tells her that such delusions are common and so forth. As is usual in these sorts of films, nobody believes her. It doesn't help that when she tries to explain, her speech turns to gibberish.Finally, she roots out a man, Christopher Kovaleski, whose daughter was a friend of Moore and her son. Kovalevski claims he never had a son but when he speaks her name the memories come flooding back. So what the hell is going on? Well, what's going on is that some supernatural force -- always referred to as "they" or "them" -- is conducting an experiment from outer space in an attempt to measure the strength of the mother-child bond. They've got the National Security Agency on their side, somehow; it's never explained how. This -- this -- force can make troublesome people disappear by whisking them up into the sky.Finally an agent from outer space -- an expressionless nonentity -- explains the deal to Moore in an abandoned warehouse. She's the last hold-out, he tells her, and he wants her to forget about her son "otherwise the experiment will fail." Pardon me while I put on my behavioral scientist's research hat. No, the experiment won't fail. It CAN'T fail. If the experiment was designed to measure the strength of the mother-child bond, that's precisely what it's doing. It's telling the investigator that everybody else has forgotten his or her child except for one or two irregular cases, Moore and Kovalevksi. If there are a hundred cases in which the erasure of memory worked and only two in which it didn't, well, those are the results. For most practical purposes, the bond is soluble.The first part of the film is interesting, shot in the most spectral parts of Brooklyn, which is in pretty bad shape to begin with. We see two people running hither and yon through dark alleyways and cowering in fields under the Williamsburg Bridge. Then, as the experiment is gradually revealed, the whole thing falls apart and become a shabby imitation of "The X Files" laced with expensive CGIs.The actors do a fine job. Moore is under-appreciated. She has a blocky, freckled beauty that doesn't fit the Hollywood stereotype but she's a splendid actress. Kovalevski's role is rather more constricting, but Alfre Woodard as a helpful police detective is compelling without seeming to reach for it.The director, Joseph Ruben, can't be held responsible for the weaknesses either. He doesn't show off with the camera and the editing is classical. Here and there, amid the wreckage, he stages a scene that's both functional and poetic."The X Files" had a respectable and solid following from 1993 to 2002. A reasonable guess is that the series served as the inspiration for this movie. Moore's character is named "Telly," two phonemes away from "Scully."

This is a suspenseful movie starring Julianne Moore as grieving mother Telly Paretta, who is struggling to cope with the loss of her 9 year-old son, Sam. When psychiatrist Dr. Jack Munce (Gary Sinise) and her husband, Jim Paretta (Anthony Edwards), tell her that she has made up the memories of a son she never had, she embarks on a mission to prove her sanity and that her son is real.The plot to the movie is cleverly devised, carefully delving into the mind of Telly, sending the audience to question her sanity, and telling of the probable cause other than insanity that mysterious out-of-this-world forces are causing her to forget her son, giving the audience the impression that there is more hidden suspense to be released. What results is a see-saw of confusion, hope and drama that I find are mind-boggling, but captivating. The lazy-day feel and sometimes dreary-looking atmosphere create an overall somber and serious mood of the entire film.I thought Gerald Di Pego's script for the movie is played out well, thanks to the descent acting, compelling plot and Joseph Ruben's direction. It's actually an enjoyable movie if you are able to put all the pieces together.Grade B

The movie starts out alright, but, eventually, becomes downright unwatchable.This movie makes you think TOO hard. So hard that it stops being enjoyable and becomes a chore to sit through.The plot holes are so huge, you can't concentrate of the movie -- you just keep thinking "how in hell did they...?" and "but why couldn't they...?" and "how is THAT possible...?" The only reason I stuck it out, was to see whether any of my questions were going to be answered in a surprise twist or something. But NONE of them were. Quite disappointing.Initially, I thought the painfully obvious plot holes were actually a cleverly placed elements of mystery, but... nope, just gaping plot holes (that distract you from watching the movie).The first half of the movie was more or less O.K., but then... aliens??? Please! That was SO lame.