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Entertainment
"The Mothman Prophecies"
MENACING BACKGROUND score, unusual camera angles, red flashing lights, some quick dissolves, blurred images of some moth like creature, close ups that don't mean much and a dramatic disaster _ all go to make a film called "The Mothman Prophecies". It is not a title that would induce one to rush to the theatre and see the film. Perhaps the lethargy is legitimate, because even till about half the film, you really don't quite figure out what the characters are talking about, except that they are petrified of some creature. And you are never really shown that creature, so that you can get scared and justify the film's existence.
You wait till the end when you figure out that the director is actually saying that this creature is a prophet of doom and people never really listen. Because this creature actually predicts disaster and no one pays any heed and people just die! But they may have wanted to, but the Mothman is so inaudible! All he does is breathe heavily and whisper harshly about some numbers, which only the director knows about.
John Klien is a star reporter at Washington Post — we assume so because his editor comes close to calling him that. Well, John and his wife, an oh so happy couple (so happy that evil is bound to pounce), go house hunting. And they find this perfect house and on the way back while Mary is driving, she sees something that makes her lose control, and there is this horrible accident. Mary ends up in hospital and is fighting for her life and perhaps sanity, and even has a tumour that seems to have come from nowhere. She keeps muttering something about having seen something and asks John, "Did you see it?'' John is puzzled _ also because, should he have seen something? Mary, in that sick state, doodles some moth like creature with red eyes. Then she dies leaving John devastated, and gripped about what really happened to her while she was driving.
John being the star reporter, of course, is inexplicably drawn to Point Pleasant in West Virginia (not everything is Almost Heaven in West Virginia!), where he learns from the townsfolk who talk in whispers, about strange visitations from this creature Mary had drawn. And weird things have been happening because of this, as well.
The director, Mark Pellington, keeps the film going with some good production values, particularly some unusual camera techniques and tilted angles, which add to the sinister mode. But the script crawls and mostly does not know where to head.
Richard Gere, who plays the role of John, is perhaps more exotic than the winged creature to hit the suburban town of Pleasant. With his trench coat and flowing scarf, at least he is something you can see!
CHITRA MAHESH
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