Movie Review: The Mothman Prophecies (2002)

The movie stars Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Will Patton, David Eigenberg, Alan Bates and Debra Messing.

I must have been having a bit of an off day the first time my wife and I watched this movie together, a few years ago, because it ended up scaring me, something that rarely happens to me when it comes to movies. And, as a result of that, I've been reluctant to watch it again.

However, we ended up doing just that last night. This time, the movie didn't scare me (and I'm still not really sure why it did the first time I saw it). But, it did, once again, prove to be an entertaining film.

The thing I found I loved about this movie was the mystery. John Klein (Gere) starts out driving south for an interview and, instead, ends up on a back road in a completely different part of the country with no memory of how he got there and, to make matters worse, winds up being held at gunpoint by someone who claims he had been there two nights before. This immediately caught my attention and things only got better as he heard the various reports from the townspeople, ranging from spotting a creature to hearing a mysterious voice on the other end of the phone predicting tragedies in other parts of the world.

When he learns the Mothman's intentions, the movie adds a new element, trying to figure out what the creature is trying to warn the town about using a series of very subtle clues while, at the same time, trying to decide whether Klein is even sane any more.

My only real complaint about this film is the very beginning with Klein and his wife (Messing). While I understand what the writers were trying to do (she also spotted the Mothman before getting in a car accident that led to doctors discovering her brain tumor), I thought that part of the movie was a bit dragged out. The filmmakers could have given us that part of the story via flashbacks and gotten to the main story right away.

As I mentioned before, this movie wasn't as scary as I remembered it being. However, it is still a film that is worth watching simply because of the mystery surrounding the mysterious creature everyone keeps spotting. If you haven't seen this film before, it is one I do recommend taking the time to watch.

My Grade: A