Grade: C+
Though I’m not recommending Forgotten Island, it’s not a badly made movie. The writing/directing team is actually quite talented. The film isn’t boring or lacking in momentum, and I liked some of it. The problem is that it does so much. My main notes would be: keep the energy, but introduce fewer characters and have less happen, by about 50% on both counts.
The plot involves Jo and Raissa, who become best friends in elementary school when they are both sent to the principal’s office (Jo for attacking a classmate who mocked her during her class presentation, Raissa for defending Jo). The story Jo was telling the class was about the forgotten island of Nakali, where her grandmother has apparently been. After graduating high school, Raissa breaks the news to Jo that she will be attending Caltech, a school far away. They sneak away from Raissa’s farewell party to have one last hurrah, and the short version is: they wake up in Nakali, it’s several hours later, and they have no memory of what they’d been doing during that time.
I don’t mind that the movie is derivative. In fact, it’s fun to play the “what does this remind you of?” game. The piece about best friends who have just graduated, and go out to party and get into every possible adventure imaginable in one night, brought to mind Booksmart. There’s a subplot about erasing memories and journeying through old ones in an effort to save them. This is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind territory. Traveling from the real world into a fantastical one is an idea done many times before, from Narnia to A Minecraft Movie.
It has influences. Fair enough. The movie crumbles for me because so many plot points and characters are paraded on, to the point where I couldn’t care anymore. It’s a shame, because I was really on board with many aspects, like the relationship and bond between our two main characters. The visuals are always pretty and never boring to look at. It has a unique frenetic momentum and an unusual sense of humor that connected with me.
Forgotten Island is one of those movies where I kept thinking I was watching the pieces of something I might really like, if only there weren’t so many of them. There’s enough imagination, energy, humor, and genuine affection between the two leads to make me wish the filmmakers had trusted those elements more, and the audience less. Strip away about half the characters and half the plot points, and there may be a really good movie hiding underneath all of this. As it is, Forgotten Island is an entertaining mess — and unfortunately, the mess eventually overwhelms the entertainment.
Grade: C+
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