Cast: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Debra Messing, Will Patton, Lucinda Jenney, Alan Bates
Director: Mark Pellington
Producers: Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi, Gary Goldstein
Screenplay: Richard Hatem, based on the book by John A. Keel
Cinematography: Fred Murphy
Music: Tomandandy
U.S. Distributor: Screen Gems
Pre-destination versus free will - it's a metaphysical debate that has obsessed religious scholars and philosophers alike through the centuries. The Mothman Prophecies works best if you accept the former: that the future is as immutable as the past. Admittedly, that may sound like weighty material for a movie that toes the genre line between thriller and horror movie, but director Mark Pellington is aiming for a more elevated plane. This is no run-of-the-mill psycho-on-a-rampage motion picture. Instead, it asks us to carefully consider what's real and what isn't, and whether anything we attempt can truly change the course of events. To act or not to act, and, if we do, does that action make a difference or just vanish like a drop of water into the pond of inevitability? Like a time-travel movie, but without the time travel, The Mothman Prophecies delights in playing with cause-and-effect relationships.
For Pellington, this is his third time in the director's chair, and The Mothman Prophecies bears more than a passing resemblance in tone and approach to his previous outing, Arlington Road. Like the earlier film, this one expects viewers to pay attention to the plotline as it unfolds, then rewards us with an explosive ending. But, unlike The Sixth Sense and its clones, appreciation of the experience does not demand slavish admiration of a key twist. The Mothman Prophecies is smart and taut, and unfolds in a manner that will provide satisfaction to both those who do and don't figure out what's going on before Pellington tips his hand.
The film opens with John and Mary Klein (Richard Gere and Debra Messing) purchasing their dream house. For John, an ace reporter at the Washington Post, happiness has finally been achieved - but it's a fleeting thing. On the way home from house-hunting, the Kleins are involved in a car accident. Mary is injured, and, at the hospital, the doctors discover that she has a rare form of brain cancer. Within weeks, she has lost her battle, but, upon her death, she leaves behind a cryptic puzzle for her husband - drawings of a strange, moth-like creature and a question: "You didn't see it, did you?"
Two years later, John has come to terms with his grief, but he is still not interested in dating. He has immersed himself in his job, which takes him away from his Georgetown home to Richmond, Virginia to interview a would-be Presidential candidate. While driving in the wee hours of the morning, he loses his way and inexplicably arrives in the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, more than 400 miles distant from where he expects to be. There, from a local cop, Connie Parker (Laura Linney), he learns that a number of strange things have been happening in town - people seeing apparitions and lights in the sky, hearing strange voices, and experiencing bleeding around the eyes and ears. As John investigates, he becomes convinced that what he first believed to be hallucinations may be warnings of an impending tragedy from the same moth-like being his wife sketched - a suspicion that is re-enforced in the wake of a conversation with a reclusive author named Alexander Leek (Alan Bates).
The Mothman Prophecies is more in the nature of a supernatural thriller than a traditional horror movie. Although the film features a creature of sorts, the "Mothman" is never clearly seen, nor are its nature or intentions explained. Pellington uses a lot of clever camera trickery (including numerous perspective shots, intriguing transitions, and grainy video images) to give the film a stylish feel. It's an approach that not only makes The Mothman Prophecies look interesting, but heightens the sense of tension - all without demanding clear shots of a hideous and deranged computer fabrication.
This is easily Richard Gere's best performance since 1993's Sommersby. If nothing else, Gere's work here illustrates that, when he wants to, he can do more than look suave, mouth dialogue, and act woodenly. He fits comfortably into the skin of the emotionally wounded John Klein, a skeptic by nature who finds himself confronted with incontrovertible evidence that things are going on that defy conventional explanation. Like Jeff Bridges in Arlington Road, Gere convincingly takes his character from a state of normalcy to the brink of frantic paranoia. Laura Linney provides a reliable companion for Gere - strong, smart, and solidly anchored in reality. It doesn't hurt that there's a spark between them (and that the screenplay doesn't force a romance, which would have been out of place, into the open). Support is provided by Debra Messing (star of TV's "Will and Grace") as John's wife; veteran stage and screen actor Alan Bates as a former physics professor who knows something about the Mothman's history; and character actors Will Patton and Lucinda Jenney as a husband and wife who are being haunted by the Mothman.
The Mothman Prophecies is loosely based on a 1975 book by John A. Keel, which related events that transpired in and around Point Pleasant, West Virginia in late 1966 and 1967. For the film, the time frame has been transposed to the present day and a fictional protagonist has been introduced. But many aspects of the movie, including the climax, have their basis in the historical record. Ultimately, however, the skill evident in crafting The Mothman Prophecies reduces the "based on real events" caption to a curiosity. The truth or fiction of the underlying story is inconsequential. This compelling motion picture offers enough mystery and suspense to keep the average viewer involved to the end.
© 2002 James Berardinelli