“The Mothman Prophecies” (USA 2001) **
Directed by Mark Pellington
“The Mothman Prophecies” has a lot going for it. For one, it is based on interesting, larger than life true events that happened in small town, Point Pleasant, Virginia. The film also arrives complete with high production values, stunning lighting work, innovative camera techniques and above average performances from a solid cast led by Richard Gere, Laura Linney (“You Can Count on Me”), Alan Bates and Will Patton. So why then does the impressive “The Mothman Prophecies” fail both as satisfactory entertainment or a scary artistic piece? The answer lies in the filmmakers undermining of the film’s purpose while paying shameless kudos to the Hollywood style of filmmaking.
The intriguing plot concerns John Klein (Gere), a respected Washington Post journalist still coping, after two years, from the trauma resulting from the sudden inexplicable death of loving wife, Mary (Debra Messing). By some strange circumstances, John loses his way driving one night and ends up in Point Pleasant. The inhabitants have been experiencing strange phenomena recently – strange lights, eerie sounds and Mothman sightings – which apparently have some link to Mary’s accident. With the help of the initially skeptical Sgt. Connie Parker (Linney), John attempts to make some sense out of the baffling incidents.
Richard Gere’s performance as harried, confused and determined reporter saddened by loss is convincing but lacks subtlety. Oscar nominee Laura Linney, however, is lost (no fault of hers) at her confused role as cop, friend or perhaps lover. Alan Bates has a nice cameo as Leek, putting in the sparks and needed explanations to the story. Even director Pellington gives himself a bit role as a bartender.
Where the film succeeds is its first half when it works as a puzzle waiting to be solved. The incremental horror (little hints of drawings are followed by sightings and finally contact), confused human relationships (John and the initially suspicious Patton character), paranoia (crazy behavior from honest town folk), biting humour (Bates on why the intelligent force would not explain their purpose of communication with human beings: “Would you try to contact a cockroach and warn it of impending disasters?”) and emotional undertow (John and Connie’s relationship) satisfy the viewer’s expectations of a genuine chiller.
But the film turns into a cloudy mess in its last third once the mystery has been resolved and John discovers his true calling. Pellington could have played the rest of the film as a premonition drama (man knows of impending disaster, tries to prevent it, to everyone’s disbelief) or a disaster flick, “Towering Inferno” – style. Unfortunately, Pellington and writer Richard Hater opts for the latter path, combining the story with the true collapse of the Ohio River Bridge in the December of 1967. The mood so effectively created is spoiled with the film headed towards the direction of a big-budget pyrotechnics-style action flick. What is worse is that Pellington resorts to Hollywood devices – a girl in wedding dress coming out of the bridal store to glimpse at the disaster, slow motion stretched out special effects etc. Who would be trying out a wedding dress at 6 pm. on Christmas Eve? The alternative path of premonition drama echoing Pellington previous film “Arlington Road” would have benefited from its strengths. The cheap shock tactics placed at various points in the film (Mary’s sudden appearance in bed besides John; loud bursts of sound; the jolt awakening from coma) annoy more than scare.
What is most impressive is Fred Murphy’s’ (“Stir of Echoes” and “October Sky”) cinematography, particularly his creation of a grayish but never depressing atmosphere of small town Point Pleasant. From the first image (Murphy plays with lights of the imagination), opening credits (stretching, shifting and fading letters) to the rays of light shimmering (echoes of Richard Gere in his first important role “American Gigolo”?) through the closet shutters as John and Mary first make out, his efforts reach a feverish peak as John flips a wardrobe door shut, its mirror reflecting for a few seconds, a bloody reddish image of a phantom. There is a well-done 5 minute segment of images overlapping and flashbacks filling the screen as a panic stricken John reflects on the recent incidents as he drives off in his car.
Pellington’s film will probably do well at the box-office, judging from mainstream audiences’ insatiable appetite for disturbing grown-up horror, as M. Night Shyamalan’s nightmarish “Unbreakable” and “The Sixth Sense” proved. “The Mothman Prophecies” is strikingly similar to both films. The first half works like the suspense mystery of “The Sixth Sense” and the last half like “Unbreakable” with John attaining prophetic abilities just as Bruce Willis became the indestructible comic book hero. One only wonders when the Richard Gere character will eventually utter the words: “I see Moth People!”
