My Prophecy? You'll Love The Mothman!

In 1966, the sleepy town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia took a turn for the bizarre. Sightings of a winged anthropromorphic creature, nearly eight feet tall and clad in black, began popping up all about Point Pleasant. People complained of knocking doors at 2 a.m., flashes of red lightning, mysterious phone calls in the middle of the night, and voices emanating from the drains of bathroom sinks.

The Mothman was born, a local legend denied the publicity of Bigfoot, the Jersey Devil, and the Loch Ness Monster, but just as terrifying to those who claim to have lived through his wrath.

The Mothman Prophecies is a movie dedicated to bringing the local legend into the mainstream. It is remarked to be based on actual events. I went on the second night of its premier and sat stone-still for 113 minutes, with a captive audience of nearly 300, as the story unfolded like moth wings across the screen - gossamer yet powerful.

NOTE: THE ENDING OF THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES IS NOT DISCLOSED WITHIN THIS REVIEW, THOUGH SOME KEY COMPONENTS OF THE PLOT ARE REVEALED.

From the first vexing phone call John Klein (Richard Gere) receives at his cubicle at The Washington Post, things are beginning to go awry.

Klein declines an invitation to the Post's Christmas party to go house shopping with his wife, Mary, played by Debra Messing, of the hit sitcom Will & Grace.

Life is good for the Kleins, even though they get caught in mid-hump in the closet by their realtor.

The on-screen chemistry between Messing and Gere bubbles with authenticity. They are as ostensibly in love as any couple has ever been. It lays a foundation of believability for the remainder of tale.

Prompted by the amorous onslaught of her husband, Mary Klein pins the accelerator of her BMW on the wet, winding roads of Washington D.C.

Enter the Mothman.

In a red flash, Mary Klein loses control of her car and her consciousness, her head smashing into the driver-side window. In a brief bedside interlude, as Mary Klein wakes from her coma, she asks her husband, "You didn't see it, did you?"

Not longer after a rare, moth-shaped tumor is found in her temporal lobe, she dies, and John Klein is crushed. By her bedside, in the pile of her effects, he finds a sketchbook. An oafish orderly tells John that his wife "knew," as she had been drawing angels. As he flips the pages, it slowly comes to light that these drawings are of no angels.

The orderly disappears.

Two years later, John's life is back on track, albeit a lonely one.

He's risen back to the top of his field and is on his way to Richmond, Virginia to interview the governor. But, as red lightning strikes his powerful Audi dead, he ends up on the front step of a pair of frightened country folk - over four hundred miles away in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, on the border of Ohio.

Four hundred plus miles in roughly an hour?

He is received at gunpoint and held prisoner in the shower until Officer Connie (Laura Linney) shows up to dissuade the farmer from blasting John Klein's head through the bathroom wall.

Connie and John become fast friends as the tale unfurls. She shares with him the strange reports she's been receiving lately by normally, church-going folk and not just the town speed-freak.

From this point, the Mothman sightings become more and more frequent. More and more phone calls come in and John Klein realizes, with the help of his former captor turned ally, that the vatic voice on the receiver is not of human origin. The voice tells of things only Klein would know, including what he is holding in his hand at the time of the call! (Chaaaaaaaap Stiiiiiiick!)

Klein's farmer friend receives warnings of danger, encrypted beyond his understanding. In particular, "Denver 99 will die!"

Confused, they head to a coffee shop and, while eating, a news brief pops up on the screen above the counter: "...Flight 9 out of Denver has just crashed...all 99 passengers are confirmed dead..."

Klein begins searching for answers from an ex-physics teacher turned ex-paranormal psychologist. After much prodding, he explains to Klein that the Mothman is not the cause of things, merely a reporter, not too unlike himself. Paranormally speaking, says the professor, moths are the trapped souls of the dead who have been relegated to the earth rather than the great beyond. They "see." He further explains to Klein that a window washer on the 10th floor may see a car accident blocks away, and know about it before anyone else - but that doesn't make him a god...just someone able to see a bit farther down the road than everyone else. What an excellent analogy!

Then, later, the inevitable question arises. Klein, nearly driven to madness by prophetic voices over unplugged phones telling of great tragedies and glimpses of his long dead wife, asks "Why me?"

The answer is as fine an answer as I have ever heard in such movies. The professor responds, "Most people aren't sensitive enough to notice. You noticed them, and they have noticed that you have noticed them."

That's right.

THEM.

The legend of the Mothman is not indigenous to Point Pleasant. Apparently, there have been cave drawings, as well as reports from places far removed from civilization of a similar creature with similar powers.

The Mothman is not a catalyst, merely a harbinger of danger, a prophet of doom.

I'll stop at this point.

Hopefully, I've whetted your appetite enough that you hunger for the rest of the story. The remainder of the story unfolds rapidly and erupts in a satisfying climax.
Gere and Messing are excellent throughout and Laura Linney's role is both well-played and well-written.

I will purchase this movie as soon as it hits VHS. It is a wonderful film about what goes on in the periphery of what we choose to recognize as reality and that carries the lesson that sometimes curious events are better left alone.

I hope you enjoyed this review!

Now, go.

The Mothman knows you're coming.

Enjoy!

Mike