Unforgettable: A thriller with heart

What lengths would you go to for love?

For director/ producer Denise Di Novi, that is the question at the heart of her new suspense thriller Unforgettable.

“The story intrigued me because it’s about two very different women thrown into a complicated, blended family relationship,” she says.

“They each feel tremendous pressure – one to create the perfect life, the other to hold on to it.

“That pressure drives one to madness, while the other is forced to find the strength to fight for her life. I thought that would make for a very intense thriller.”

When they meet, the two women at the centre of the story are at separate crossroads.

Despite being divorced for years, Tessa has never accepted that her marriage is over, secretly believing that she and her ex-husband, David, were meant to someday reconcile.

But that hope is dashed by the arrival of her ex’s new fiancée, Julia, who is leaving behind a traumatic past and embarking on a new life with David.

Producer Alison Greenspan relates: “Julia has emerged from a very dark period and is finally at a place where she feels like she’s found her fairytale prince – a guy who’s caring and treats her with kindness and respect. What she doesn’t know is that his exwife is going to be way more than she bargained for.”

“Julia soon finds out her dream guy does not have a dream ex-wife,” Di Novi affirms.

“At first, Tessa appears to be making an effort, but as time goes on, their relationship gets more and more tense … and more and more scary.”

“On the one hand, the film is a thrill ride and we love watching the crazy unfurl,” says Greenspan.

“On the other hand, it works on a deeper level where we question what happens when the way in which we define ourselves – as a spouse, a mother, a partner – is challenged. What happens when we lose the identity we so carefully crafted for ourselves and then are lost without it?”

Katherine Heigl, who stars as Tessa, reflects: “You can’t help but wonder, ‘What would I do if my husband and I got divorced and he moved on with someone else? How would I behave in that circumstance?’

“I hope I’d handle it with some dignity, but it would still be heartbreaking. “It is the death of all the dreams you had for your family and your future together and, unfortunately, that sends Tessa right over the edge.”

Starring as Julia, Rosario Dawson says that, by contrast, the dream is just beginning for her character.

“You’re catching Julia at that ‘pinch me’ moment when she’s happy and in love. She is excited about the steps she is taking to build a new life, but because of everything she’s gone through before, it’s hard for her to trust in it and not wonder when the other shoe is going to drop.

“I was rooting for her because I know how that feels, and I think anyone could understand what that might be like.”

Di Novi observes that both Julia and Tessa are “worried about the wrong things”.

“Tessa’s entire life has been geared toward having the perfect life – the right marriage, the right husband, the right house. “Julia escaped an abusive relationship and has worked hard to move past it, yet she is still hiding it from David.

“So it is kind of a cautionary tale for women about what can happen when your whole identity rests on your relationship with a man, good or bad.”

“I think that taps into something innate in all of us,” screenwriter Christina Hodson suggests.

“Our sense of identity is so primal, so crucial to our fundamental psychology.

“If another person jeopardises that, just how far would you go to reclaim it? That can be a slippery slope.”

Thanks in no small part to the pervasiveness – and invasiveness – of today’s social media, our identity has never been more vulnerable.

“It’s all too easy these days to be deceived or manipulated without even realizing it’s happening,” Di Novi says, “a fact that plays right into Tessa’s plans.”

Di Novi, who had developed Unforgettable with executive producer Lynn Harris, was already set to produce the project when the opportunity arose to take the director’s chair for the first time.

She remarks: “As a producer, I have made movies of virtually every genre but never a thriller, and that’s funny because they are among my favourite films.

“So I was excited to direct this film, especially because it was a female-driven story.”

The main cast of Unforgettable also included veteran television and film star Cheryl Ladd, Whitney Cummings, Simon Kassianides, Isabella Kai Rice and Robert Ray Wisdom.

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