The Mothman Prophecies

The Mothman Prophecies

Starring Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Will Patton, Debra Messing

Directed by Mark Pellington

Years ago I visited friends in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, and I was driving across a bridge that seemed very familiar to me, even though I'd never been in the town before.  My friend with me told me that this was the bridge where they filmed "The Mothman Prophecies," which I had seen a few weeks prior, and I was really surprised because I had never at that point been to a place that was actually filmed for a movie.  After re-watching it now, I remember that bridge and realized that I was more excited about accidentally being there than the movie itself, which really hasn't held up well, despite the strong performances.

John Klein (Richard Gere) and his wife Mary (Debra Messing) just bought a new house when Mary witnesses a mysterious moth-like creature while they're driving, and crash.  She ends up passing away from a brain tumor, leaving John broken and alone.  Two years later, he is driving through Virginia and ends up in the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, without realizing it, and goes for help at the home of Gordon Smallwood (Will Patton), who's shaken up because he claims he's seen John at his home three times previously.

Gordon calls officer Connie Mills (Laura Linney), who is as perplexed as John as to what is happening, and uncovers that several people in the town have had strange prophetic visions, as well as seeing the same moth-like creature that Mary saw back in Virginia before her death.  John starts believing that something more is going on, when he begins receiving mysterious phone calls seemingly prophesying a major catastrophe that will befall the small town, and wonders if the mothman is behind it, or trying to warn them.

I've always been interested in cryptids, and the Mothman is one of them.  A strange moth-like being having been seen all over the world for centuries, it's a harbinger of doom and usually appears before a major catastrophe occurs.  In the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in 1966 and 1967, the Mothman was sighted by several people, and on December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant collapsed due to rush-hour traffic weight, resulting in 46 deaths.  "The Mothman Prophecies" is based off those events, but changes the timeline to the modern (or early 2000s modern) timeline, centering on a group of fictionalized people who try to uncover what the Mothman is trying to tell them.

Richard Gere and Laura Linney give great performances, but overall the film is very disjointed and lacking a sense of narrative.  It skips around from one story to another without really cementing them together, offering little in the continuity of the movie itself.  John arrives in town and almost instantly officer Mills is working closely with him about the mystery, showing him documents and probably sensitive information like he's been working with her for years.  Gordon has strange visions of John appearing to him, then seemingly forgets all about it, but then suffers other visions that come true at certain times.  John starts getting strange calls from someone called "Indrid Cold," which I guess is supposed to be the Mothman, although why he'd call himself Ingrid Cold is beyond me.  There's not a whole lot of the movie that makes sense, and seems to just gear up for its final moment.

That moment - not really a spoiler - is the destruction of the town's bridge, which is really the only decent moment of the movie.  It was done practically, and looks really terrifying if you were a part of it, and shot very well.  The Mothman itself didn't really serve as a scary being, as it was only seen in odd glimpses, and the film didn't really seem to answer its own question, but turn it to the bridge disaster while pretty much forgetting the creature in its own title.

Decent performances and a decent final act doesn't add up to a great film, and "The Mothman Prophecies" was greatly hindered by a subpar creature and disjointed script that went in every direction.

The Score: C-