Before I begin my petulant tirade on this poor excuse for a film, let me first alert my fellow MS members that the story plot is completely revealed in this review.
The story opens up in the offices of the Washington Post where ace reporter John Klein (Richard Gere) is speaking to a woman called Mary. John is taking his wife Mary Klein (Debra Messing) to view and buy their dream home. Tragedy strikes them on their drive back when Mary hits something with her car and meets with a serious accident. A scan in the hospital reveals a rare case of a fatal brain tumor. She is dead within days and John is left with her diary filled with strange and disturbing sketches of a moth-like creature with red eyes on every page.
Fast forward to two years later and John is to interview the governor. When the interview is postponed, he decides to drive down to Richmond at 1 in the morning. A few flashes and his car stops on a deserted road in the middle of nowhere at 2:30 a.m. A short walk later, he finds a small farm house and knocks on the door only to be greeted with a shot gun in his face. The owners, Gordon and Denise Smallwood (Will Patton and Lucinda Jenney), take John and corner him in the shower while they await the arrival of the police office, Connie Mills (Laura Linney). She convinces the Smallwoods that John is harmless and removes his from their property.
John soon finds out he is in Point Pleasant in West Virginia. He has no idea how he ended up in Point Pleasant, 400 miles away from Washington D.C. in one and a half hour. Connie informs him that strange events have been reported by honest townsfolk. Most are reports of the sighting of a moth-like creature with red eyes. On the sighting of a drawing of the creature, john is moved to action. It is the same creature that his wife sketched several times over in her diary before her death.
He is now determined to find out what the creature is and what is its purpose in Point Pleasant. His quest takes him to Chicago to meet Alexander Leeks (Alan Bates), the author of a book on supernatural and what-have-you. It is here that John learns that the creature is as ancient as time and has been referred to as the Mothman. Anyway, the author reveals nothing more than what the viewers already know. It exists and nobody believes it and its appearance in Point Pleasant means only that something bad is going to happen there!
To cut to the chase, not a soul believes what John has to say. He believes that the chemical plant on the river is going to blow coz that’s what Mothman told him. John begins to receive calls in the middle of the night and a distorted voice speaks to him of his past and his present. The voice claims to be Indrid Cole (Bill Laing). John is convinced that something bad is going to happen to the chemical plant when the governor is supposed to visit it.
Connie has had a disturbing dream of drowning and someone saying, ’’Wake up No. 37. You’re okay.’’ Gordon is now receiving prophecies about the future first-hand from Mothman. Soon, Gordon is dead only an hour after calling John but the medical examiner claims Gordon was dead for the last eight hours. John is informed by Mothman that great tragedy will strike Point Pleasant by the river.
But when the governors visit to the chemical plant proves uneventful, John is faced with the anguished question over his sanity. When a message is given to him saying that Mary (his wife) will be calling him Friday at noon, he rushes home and waits for the call.
It’s Christmas day and he’s sitting in front of the phone. Its five minutes to noon when the phone rings. Its Connie calling to say that she has booked his flight so he can be with them for Christmas. With a little help from her, he makes up his mind to give up the long wait and the memory of his wifes death. Eerily enough, the phone rings again after being disconnected from its main source. John ignores it and begins the drive to Point Pleasant.
Does the prophecy come true? Will Connies dream come to pass? Will John survive the prophectic deliberations of a creature that many have seen and come to dread? Suffice to say that none of the prophecies given by the Mothman are adequate for anyone to guess what the end will be like. What cataclysmic event has the Mothman brought upon the poor unsuspecting residents of Point Pleasant? Dare you watch it?
Director Mark Pellington has created a miasma of some bad camera tricks, special effects and annoying sound effects. There are many incomprehensible moments in the movie that not only serve to confuse but to downright exasperate the intelligent viewer. The plot itself was not a bad one but so vague that it had no clout over the viewer. The acting was excellent given the limitations of the plot. The visuals were good but the scenes did not blend and left many voids in the story.
I strongly advise against viewing this film even gratis. It will merely serve to incense and drive you to lunacy in feeble attempts at trying to piece it all together. It is all together a huge mish-mash of everything; hi-tech and low-quality. There are one or two good camera moves but not enough to warrant renting the DVD. Wait till it comes on Star Movies. Pity I didn’t.