OxfordPress.com

Grade: C+

Verdict: An X-Files wannabe that goes zzzz...

Details: Starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney. Rated PG-13 for sudden fright scenes, language, sensuality. 2 hours.

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Review: Imagine Richard Gere as Fox Mulder and Laura Linney as Dana Scully. Substitute a newspaper reporter and a small-town police officer for two FBI investigators. And call it a very special two-hour episode of The X-Files.

That sums up The Mothman Prophecies.

Except that it's an hour too long. And not very special.

Sci-fi fans hungering for a tight, kicky thriller won't find it here, despite a strong cast, potent atmospherics from director Mark Pellington (Arlington Road) and the usual mumbo-jumbo about a creepy mothman who eerily predicts death and calamity.

The movie, supposedly based on "true events," begins with Gere as a hotshot reporter for The Washington Post. (So much for true events. Rest assured that few newspapermen resemble Richard Gere.) Anyway, his life is sweet, between taking on politicos at work and snuggling with his lovely wife (Will and Grace's Debra Messing) in the closet of their new home.

Then, the wife sees a moth-like apparition and is suddenly diagnosed with a terminal tumor. Cue up two years later. A still-grieving Gere is inexplicably drawn to Point Pleasant, W.Va., a remote rural town where, as the cliché goes, strange things are happening.

A gun-toting working stiff (Will Patton) claims that Gere has shown up at his door three nights in a row. Eyes of the townsfolk are swollen red. Reports abound of an insect guy. Terrible shrieks travel through phone lines, and a disembodied voice makes hellish pronouncements that "99 will die."

And, scariest of all, this mothman-spirit-whatever knows all, even that Gere is clutching ChapStick in his hand! (ChapStick? What a goofy plug!)

So Gere hangs around town, teaming up with a skeptical, but caring police officer (Linney), and tries to smoke out the mothman -- as well as discover what happened to his wife. Is she alive? Is he going bonkers? Can he stop these awful prophecies from coming true?

What do you think?

Here's the problem. The basic plot, by writer Richard Hatem, is acceptable sci-fi hokum, which means it's not very logical but you don't really care. As long as there are some semi-intriguing plot twists and great BOO! moments. But Pellington dishes out the details at a seriously slack pace. The mind has time to wander -- and wonder: Why should a zippy frightfest play like a lethargic art movie?

Pellington does have an eye for striking compositions. But this MTV grad seems too interested in show-off style. Ever since David Fincher patented the gloomy look of Seven, thriller directors can't stop monkeying around with blurred images, askew camera angles, satanic background music and a color scheme like a 2-day-old bruise. While the visuals sizzle, the story usually suffers.

Gere gives a solid performance, but it doesn't require a stretch of his limited, leading man muscles. Linney, though, really deserves a better movie. Despite being saddled with a goofy cop cap, she projects such earthy warmth and sexy intelligence that the film flatlines every time she's offscreen. And why Alan Bates, as a paranormal expert, even bothered is as head-scratching as the ultimate meaning of the moths.

If you have a jones for murky sci-fi, The Mothman Prophecies may fit the bill. Otherwise, here's a prophecy: You're better off staying home and watching The X-Files.

— Larry Aydlette, Cox News Service