MOVIE SCENE
'The Mothman Prophecies' seems restrained, unrevealing

By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service

THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES (PG-13) Two Stars (Fair) Richard Gere dives into "X-Files" country for this story about a reporter trying to uncover mysterious paranormal activities in a West Virginia town. Laura Linney and Alan Bates co-star for director Mark Pellington. Screen Gems, 119 mins.

It's a modest and messy metaphysical thriller that offers more questions than it answers.

The film is based on mysterious events that reportedly occurred in Point Pleasant, W.Va., in the mid-'60s, as recounted in a 1975 book by reporter John A. Keel.

The book apparently is popular among fans of the paranormal, and was reportedly an early influence on the development of TV's "The X-Files."

Basing a film on supposedly real events isn't always a good thing. Here, the filmmakers felt free to dramatize and fictionalize aspects of the story, but stopped short of supplying any sort of logical conclusion, since no such conclusion exists in real life.

The resulting film is to alien infestation and prophecy what "The Amityville Horror" was to satanic thrillers like "The Exorcist." The "true events" may be hooey, who knows? Still, they're "facts" and aren't to be toyed with. At least, not too much.

Like "The Amityville Horror" years earlier, "The Mothman Prophecies" seems restrained, hemmed in, and not especially imaginative.

Gere plays a Washington Post reporter whose name is changed here to John Klein. At the film's start, he is involved in a car crash that kills his beloved wife (Debra Messing), who apparently was distracted behind the wheel by an apparition.

Two years later, Klein finds himself in Point Pleasant, developing a story about a wide range of paranormal activity around the town.

Giant, dark mothlike creatures with blazing red eyes have been spotted by a frightened ex-alcoholic (Will Patton), two teens necking on lover's lane, and a scared woman who managed to sketch the creature.

But instead of talking to people directly, the creatures prefer to use the phone, like resourceful, alien telemarketers.

Various residents get calls from the "Mothman," in which he makes dire predictions that too often come true. Soon, Klein starts getting the calls.

He is helped in his investigation by the amiable town cop (Laura Linney), and, more reluctantly, by a veteran writer (Alan Bates), who's chronicled Mothman in the past, but has been scared out of the business.

Filmgoers seeking graphic horror — or even a good look at the creature — will be disappointed. "The Mothman Prophecies" aims at a more emotional and cerebral approach — and maintains its PG-13 rating on its gore-o-meter.

Director Mark Pellington never successfully ties his framing device — the death of Klein's wife — with the main Point Pleasant story. He also fails to generate the sort of suspense that helped his previous film "Arlington Road" overcome its contrivances.

Gere is an adequate protagonist, playing the confused loner who finds himself in over his head. Laura Linney makes an appealing small-town cop. Together, though, they fail to generate the sort of chemistry that would give the film's finale a much-needed wallop.

Veteran star Alan Bates is much more interesting in his five or 10 minutes on screen as the mysterious and disillusioned Mothman researcher. I found myself wishing the movie was telling HIS character's story.

Rated PG-13 for profanity, fright elements.