Sartaj Singh
Helmed by Alicia K. Harris, ‘The Face I Can’t Forget’ revolves around an amnesiac woman who begins to remember the face of a second daughter she has, despite her family telling her that no such person exists. After a severe car accident leaves her with total amnesia, Mia finds herself relying on the love and support of her devoted husband and their teenage daughter to piece herself back together. While she begins to resettle into her life, Mia notices inexplicable gaps in her memories and has a vision repeatedly.
In her dreams, Mia sees that she has a second daughter who was with her on the day of her car crash. However, her husband insists that she is mistaken, attributing her fragmented memories to the trauma of the crash. Her daughter, too, shows no recollection of ever having had a sister. The Lifetime thriller narrates a mystifying tale of hidden realities that culminates in chilling revelations, which leave us questioning the story’s origins.
The Face I Can’t Forget is a Fictional Tale of Amnesia, Confabulation, and Deceit
Written by Matt Sweeney, ‘The Face I Can’t Forget’ is a work of fiction that utilizes real-life phenomena to create authenticity while also having similarities to other films with a story of amnesia following an accident. The film’s central premise revolves around Mia’s amnesia and her belief in the existence of a second daughter whom no one else seems to remember. This aligns with patients of traumatic accidents experiencing confabulation, a memory disturbance where their brains create false memories to fill in gaps. However, in the Lifetime film, as well as in a few movies preceding it, confabulation is only utilized to create a counter-narrative for the protagonist to combat in their search for the truth, which is linked to their fragmented but true memories.
Parallels with Other Films: The Forgotten and Before I Go to Sleep
While ‘The Face I Can’t Forget’ is an original, standalone movie, its narrative seems to draw several parallels with the popular mind-bending mystery thrillers ‘The Forgotten’ and ‘Before I Go to Sleep.’ The 2004 film, ‘The Forgotten,’ follows Telly Paretta, a mother mourning the loss of her young son in a plane crash. However, she returns home one day to find that the album containing her son’s pictures has vanished. She asks her husband about it, and he shatters her world by telling her that she never had a son and has been delusional ever since she had a miscarriage. Her search for her son leads her down a spiral of thickening mystery. Like Telly, Mia, too, seems to be the only one to remember her child.
Another notable film with a similar premise to ‘The Face I Can’t Forget’ is ‘Before I Go to Sleep,’ which centers on Christine (Nicole Kidman), who suffers from amnesia and wakes up every day without any memory of her life. Her husband, Ben (Colin Firth), reminds her that she was in a car accident, which has left her with the condition. She sees flashes of her son, Adam, and tries to learn about him, only to be told by Ben that Adam died when he was eight. The movie is based on the book of the same name by S. J. Watson.
The plot of ‘The Face I Can’t Forget’ mirrors a sense of psychological suspense created by these films, where the protagonist’s quest for the truth becomes a struggle against those who may be hiding something. ‘The Face I Can’t Forget’ is an original work that has plot points similar to the two hit psychological thrillers and roots its premise in the condition of confabulation to create further believability.
Read More: Lifetime’s The Past Comes Knocking: Is it Based on a True Story?
