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John Klein (Richard Gere) is happily married to a fiery redhead who is not an L.A. hooker with a heart of gold. Her name is Mary (Debra Messing). Unfortunately, Mary dies after an inexplicable car accident. But before she dies she asks John if he saw "it". After she dies, he finds drawings of "it", a winged creature with glowing red eyes. The mothman! Flash forward a few years and John somehow (inexplicably!) ends up in West Virginia on his way to Virginia. He has traveled 400 miles in about 90 minutes. Even weirder is the fact that he has apparently done this a few times, according to a freaked out gun-toting local. This man has seen the same creature his Mary did. Time to stay and investigate! Fortuitously he meets Sgt. Connie Parker (Laura Linney), the local cop/counselor who's a lot more witty, charming and attractive than the rest of the residents of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, who have been seeing lots of mothmen and strange occurrences lately. She immediately gives John full access to all the police files and takes him under her wing, no pun intended. John stays, talks to people experiencing various states of strange, and starts getting phone calls from the dead/beyond/whatever alarming him of different calamities ready to befall mankind. These calls are startling and you wonder where this will all end, especially after he's promised that Mary will call. He seeks the counsel of Alexander Leek (the wry Alan Bates), a retired researcher of psychic phenomena who tells him to just drop it and run for the hills. Apparently that's the advice the screenwriter took to heart (Richard Hatem of Under Siege 2 "fame"). The film answers none of the questions it poses and leaves far too many threads hanging. For those unfamiliar with the mothman tale, this is a bit of a problem. For those who don't really care about the mothman, this is an even bigger problem. All we ever get are some beady red eyes and some cool drawings that a high school Goth could pull off in study hall. The acting is controlled for the most part. Richard Gere is angst ridden, as he should be. Instead of Debra Messing in this film (I kept waiting for Jack or Will to pop out of the bathroom), maybe it would be better for Gere to do a guest spot as Grace's new boyfriend. Talk about coming back from the dead! The biggest calamity is casting a talent like Laura Linney. She's too sharp for this film. Director Pellington (Arlington Road) is adept at creating suspense, tension and a layer of paranoia. The camera buzzes around like a bee (or a mothman?), zooming in on the characters. The editing is slick and ooga booga music keeps the pace. He is also doing a service for Point Pleasant, West Virginia tourism, as there are bound to be tours a la Blair Witch. The tone of the film is chilling and foreboding up until the final disaster and the end. Though the ending is scary given the types of disasters we've seen lately and it dovetails nicely with Connie's dream, it's too contrived and changes the tone and direction of the film. Pellington's talent should be dedicated to better stories than this one. This would have been great material for Mulder and Scully a few years back.
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