Preteen girl looking at a cell phone with her parents

Personalized picks at your fingertips

Get the mobile app on iOS and Android

Get the app
Parents' Guide to

Not to Forget

By Tara McNamara, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 10+

Underwhelming Alzheimer's drama focuses on faith, family.

Movie NR 2021 84 minutes
Not to Forget Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

See all
age 8+

Based on 2 parent reviews

linuxmill
linuxmill Parent of 18+-year-old
May 14, 2022
age 5+

Too shallow to be taken seriously.

When you can see the end of the movie within one minute of the beginning, you know you are in for a boring ride. With shallow and contrived conflicts of family illness which ebbed and flowed perfectly with plot device predictability and characters that were so two dimensional, theynwould have been better written as cartoons, I cannot give this movie a good rating even though I agree with its sentiment. It undermines itself with its lack of reality. It should take so much sentimentality tomhave one see the err of their ways.
Catriona
Catriona Adult
November 27, 2021
age 11+

Kevin Rocks!!

Cute movie. Limited parts for CLoris Olympia and others. Held together by “Joe and his mother in law with Alzheimer’s “ Kids needed more time to develop their acting skills. Great to see Kevin again and able to work with such great actors
See all 2 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In NOT TO FORGET, a New York judge sentences Chris (Tate Dewey) to a month of house arrest for his petty scams and crimes. And there's a catch: The house he's ordered to stay in is that of his estranged grandmother, Melody (Karen Grassle), in Kentucky, who's living with Alzheimer's. When Chris realizes that Melody is an affluent landowner, he launches a con that he hopes will turn four weeks of punishment into the reward of a lifetime.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (2 ):
Kids say: Not yet rated

Well-intentioned but not well-made, this faith-based dramedy's primary delight is its cast. Stars from the 1970s to the '90s are coming through the woodwork: Olympia Dukakis plays a warm-hearted but no-nonsense judge, Cloris Leachman is a beauty shop busybody, Tatum O'Neal appears as an elder-care doctor, George Chakiris is a bank manager, and Louis Gossett Jr. plays the church pastor. Carrying most of the weight as a grandmother succumbing to Alzheimer's is Grassle, who's best known as Ma from Little House on the Prairie. But she plays Melody more as "dotty" than "struggling with serious dementia."

With so many good actors giving subpar performances, which are sometimes affected by strange edits, it's hard not to think that the reason Not to Forget disappoints can be traced back to those in charge. The ideas that writer-director Valerio Zanoli is trying to convey are wonderful: The benefits of getting to know your grandparents is timeless, finding purpose through service to others is valuable, and forgiving relations for their failings applies to many families. But the story goes too far into left field by suggesting that an Alzheimer's patient would believe a young man with long hair is Jesus because he says so.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the power of forgiveness. Why is it often most healing to the one doing the forgiving?

  • How does Not to Forget depict Alzheimer's? Does it seem like a realistic look at the illness and how it affects families?

  • The dialogue notes that this story was inspired by the prodigal son story from the Bible. If you know that story, why do you think it's a popular one to adapt into films?

  • How is this movie similar to or different from other faith-based films you've seen?

Movie Details

Inclusion information powered by

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

See all recommended movie lists

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate