Yeah, That's In His Hand But What's Up His Butt?
(Note: The following review is based on true events of a movie Jason watched at his home.)
Normally when I watch a movie and it begins with "Based on Actual Events", I usually say bullshit because the story is so ludacris (and Coolio) that I highly doubt it really took place. And I would've thought so about this movie if it wasn't for the fact I actually heard of a "mothman" going around to various parts of the word and talking to people with that odd speech impedment he has. Or at least is given in the movie.
And I should note that the movie is directed by Mark Pellington, who's made a few movies but I know him as the director of the infamous "Jeremy" music video by Pearl Jam. And the events that happen in the movie actually take place sometime in the 60's. So pretty much we're replacing all the dialoge that occured in the movie with "Wow man, it was, like, trippy, dude. Let's hit some acid!"
We start off with Richard Gere as John "Jack" Klein, a reporter for the Washington Post. He's leaving his office to look at houses with his wife Mary, played by Debra Messing, who is either Will or Grace on that one TV show. After defiling a closet, they have no choice but to take the house. And on the ride home, Mary sees the mothman flying at her, she freaks out, and crashes the car, which winds her up in the hospital.
There, it's discovered she has a tumor, and before John can get all weepy about it, she dies. While going through her stuff at the hospital, she finds her little notebook full of drawings of said mothman, which look as if they were drawn by Charles Manson.
John tries not to think about this for two years.
Then he gets an assignment to talk to some governor dude, so he starts driving to Richmond. On the way his car dies out and he starts walking. He finds a nice little house and knocks on the door to ask the nice people there for help. And the nice people at the nice little house point a nice little shotgun in his face and say "LEAVE US ALONE RICHARD GERE!!"
So John is held hostage in these people's shower until the local cop, Connie, shows up to find out what's going on. The dude, Gordon, states that John's been showing up at their house every night at the same time asking to use the phone. John says Gordon is high. Connie checks out John's story and finds he's clean. She agrees to take him into town where his car can get fixed. At a hotel, he finds he's in a town called Point Plesant, West Virginia, which is like the total opposite direction of Richmond, Virginia. I guess west of it.
Wondering how the hell he went in the total opposite direction, he does some investigating. Apparently a lot of weird shit has been going down in this town, with residents seeing weird figures and hearing strange noises and getting odd phone calls and the occasional stigmata. Oh, no stigmata. That's another movie.
Anyway, John and Connie interview the folks in the town and he thinks something weird is going on. Then Gordon decides to make up with John for that whole holding his hostage at gunpoint thing and tells him more crazy shit is happening. Like hearing voices coming from his sink. And the voice tells him a shitload of people are gonna die in Denver.
Sure enough, a shitload of people die in Denver.
Really freaked out now, John calls an expert on the mothman, Alexander Leek, who tries to put the mothman behind him. So John arranges to fly to Chicago, where Leek lives, to face him in person or to dress up like the mothman and give him a good scare for a laugh.
But first, we get the famous "C-c-c-c-c-chapstick" line when John receives a call from the mothman, who calls himself Ingrid Cold. John is testing Ingrid by doing various things in his room and he asks him what he's holding. Ingrid guesses Chapstick. His second guess was a gerbil.
Really, really freaked out, John flies to Chicago and stalks Leek until he ambushes him in an alley, shakes him, and yells "I GOT NOWHERE ELSE TO GO!!!!" No, wait. Wrong movie. He asks Leek for information, which Leek does in his own cryptic way. Basically, whenever a mothman appears in a town, some major is gonna happen. Oh, and only people who experienced severe trauma can see him.
Rushing back to Point Pleasant, he finds that Gordon's wife left him because Gordon is having an affair with the mothman. I should mention here, because it's at this point the story kinda slows down and it's just Richard Gere running around trying to figure shit out, that Connie had a dream where she was drowning and someone called her "37".
During the "John Running Around" part of the movie, Connie claims that his dead wife came into the police station looking for him, which further freaks him out. He drives all the way back to Chicago to ask Leek one simple question, which he answers and states that John should just let the whole thing go or else he's gonna end up going crazy. So John rushes back, trashes his hotel room, and is listening to all the recordings of the mothman. Then his boss makes John do a story about the governor coming to the SAME EXACT town he's in to tour the local chemical plant. While listening to the tapes again he hears "a tragedy on the Ohio River", which is where the plant is.
John thinks the plant is gonna blow up and tries to get the governor and everyone else for that matter to not go. They think he's crazy and go anyway. And then....
Nothing happens. Very confused, John packs up and heads back home, where he gets a message stating that Mary is gonna call him at noon the next day.
While waiting for Mary to call, Connie calls, says it really isn't gonna be Mary calling but the mothman pretending to be a woman cause that's how he get's off. John, believing this, doesn't answer when the phone rings and heads back to start boinking Connie.
On the way though, John gets stuck in traffic and sees a shitload of cars on the bridge which leads to town. He puts it all together and realizes that GODZILLA IS GONNA STOMP ON THE BRIDGE!!!!
No, wait. He's not. The bridge is just gonna collapse.
Connie realizes this too so she and John spends the next ten minutes getting people off the bridge, which doesn't do much good cause it breaks and people end up dying. When John sees Connie flying into the water, he dives in and saves her. From drowning.
Later, John asks the fire cheif how many people died and he says "36". Which means Connie would've been the thirty-seventh.
Creepy, huh?
And according to what's written at the end, no one could figure out why the bridge collapsed and the mothman never came back to Point Pleasant. What a party pooper.
So, is there really a mothman? Probably. Why is he called the mothman? I'm not sure. The movie sort of explains it but I didn't understand it. But this movie was pretty awesome, so you should check it out for yourself if you haven't. As for me, I know what you're reading right now...
T-t-t-t-the final sentence of this review!!!
4 stars.
"The Mothman Prophecies" on IMDb.com:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265349/
For more information about the mothman and what inspired this movie:
http://www.prairieghosts.com/moth.html