Gone, But Not Forgotten [2003] Michael D Akers

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Gone, But Not Forgotten (2003)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375782/

The story is about two brothers working as park rangers in an isolated place called Summit Valley--Paul (Bryant) is the older, more experienced, serious-minded brother; Drew (Orr) is still trying to figure out who he is and what he wants to do with his life. He\'s never really recovered from the death of their parents in an accident when they were teens. Enter Mark (Montgomery), a stranger in town whom Drew rescues during a flash flood. But now Mark has amnesia, and while Drew helps him rebuild his memories, the two begin to fall for each other. And this wrinkle does not sit well with Paul and his wife (Lasker), especially when Mark\'s real life finally catches up with him.

Matthew Montgomery ... Mark Reeves
Aaron Orr ... Drew Parker
Ariadne Shaffer ... Catherine Reeves
Joel Bryant ... Paul Parker
Brenda Lasker ... Nancy Parker
Bryna Weiss ... Dr. Mary Williams
Holden Roark ... Towey
Jenny Kim ... Nurse
Daniel Lee ... Intern in Hallway
Mark Fellows ... Man in Wheelchair
Joanne Bevelaqua ... Drew\'s Mother
Glenn Blakeslee ... Drew\'s Father

Tainted with connotations of soapy melodrama, amnesia is a plot device screenwriters should approach with great caution. Luckily, writer/director Michael D. Akers has a deft touch, and his shoestring-budgeted Gone, But Not Forgotten gets beyond the traditional \'Who am I? Where am I?\' moments quickly to take on deeper issues of identity and relationships.

No one is sure how or why Mark (Matthew Montgomery) has ended up at the bottom of a ravine in a Califonia national forest. Drew (Aaron Orr), the young ranger who finds him, is baffled, and so is Mark, who can\'t seem to remember anything about who he is or where he\'s come from. No car is found nearby, so as Mark lies in a hospital bed recovering from minor injuries, questions abound.

Contrived though the situation may sound, Akers orchestrates it with style. Drew is extremely well-spoken about his homosexuality and the challenges it presents, and the small-town doctor (Bryna Weiss) in charge of Mark\'s case is a paragon of plain-spoken common sense and sympathy. Once Mark\'s identity is inevitably discovered, everyone involved has to shift perceptions before they can move on to the next stages of their lives. Both Drew and Mark have much to come to terms with, and those challenges form the dramatic core of this sensitively crafted film.

Gone, But Not Forgotten is a low-key romance of quiet charm. What writer-director Michael D. Akers calls the \"credit-card-sized budget\" is evident in a certain amateurish quality to the acting and filming, but the slightly naÃ¯ve style adds to the warmth and sweetness of the film. The film is revolutionary in its quiet way by not having an overt agenda to push: Akers says in his notes to the DVD that he wanted to make a film that he \"would have wanted to see as a gay kid in Amish countryââ‚¬¦a sweet love story about two hot guys,\" without the edginess of the films about AIDS or coming out that he had grown up watching. Sure enough, in Gone, But Not Forgotten AIDS is not even a shadow on the gorgeous mountain horizon. Drew\'s sexuality is, we gradually come to learn, already known and accepted by his family and the local doctor, who seems to represent the townspeople in this six-actor film. Even Drew\'s devoutly Christian sister-in-law accepts him and makes no effort to change him or preach to him. It\'s refreshing to see a gay-themed film that has no fights to pick; for this reason, what would be an old-fashioned story in a mainstream film becomes remarkableââ‚¬â€a relatively straightforward tale of finding love, losing love, and trying to regain love. The main antagonist in this film isn\'t religion, homophobia, AIDS, or even the sole truly bitchy character; it\'s ignorance of, or denial of, one\'s identity. Mark does show discomfort at the idea of being perceived as gay, but his unease is inextricably linked to the bigger question about his identity as a whole. He is reluctant to be categorized by townspeople when he himself has no idea who he really is.

Sexual identity is just one facet of the identity Mark seeks. Mark\'s search for himself leads him on a quest to discover not only his sexual orientation, but also his past, his career, his talents, even his full name. Drew, who saved his life but can\'t answer his questions, has his own issues to confront. Harboring unreasonable guilt over his parents\' death, he has resigned himself to being a disappointment to his brother, who has essentially taken on the role of father to him. Even the warm, motherly town doctor seems to act as a parent toward Drew, another indication of his refusal to take on full adult responsibilities in his life. Clearly Mark is not the only one in need of rescuing, and the movie maintains interest after the two leads are parted by following both as they struggle separately toward self-actualization. That hefty term may make the process sound dry, but the story maintains a sense of humor, as do its characters. Akers wisely doesn\'t let the movie take itself too seriously, so that even as the story takes a darker turn it never becomes over-earnest.

The presence of themes of identity and memory as they come to bear on falling in love couldn\'t help but remind me of Mulholland Drive, which coincidentally also examined these issues as they arose in a gay romance. But the gentle, pensive world of Gone, But Not Forgotten will never be mistaken for the hallucinatory universe of David Lynch, even if the gorgeous mountain scenery (filmed at Yosemite) does recall a more benign Twin Peaks. Gone, But Not Forgotten offers a persuasive view of how anxieties about identity might play out in real-life relationships. The questions Drew and Mark face are questions that emerge for all lovers, gay and straight: How much can I trust what I think I know of this person I love? What if I\'m not the person he or she thinks I am? Is being with this person the life I want, or is it safer to live in the past? Gone, But Not Forgotten takes the optimistic perspective that questioning a relationship this way can ultimately strengthen, not destroy, it.