(rated PG-13, 119 mins.)
Based on events that supposedly took place in Richmond, Virginia comes the suspense thriller of a Washington Post Reporter named John Klein (Richard Gere), drawn to a small West Virginia town after his own personal tragedy. Confronted by sudden weird occurrences, deaths, and mysterious forces with bogeyman-in-your-back-camerawork constantly creeping up on the viewer so that you’re paranoid from the get-go. Yet this-try-to-be Stephen King-esque story itself is a phenomenon since Richard Gere actually would choose this role that unravels to the end of the movie, leaving us as confused as the townsfolk. Gere spends much of his time “trying to find an explanation to something that can’t be explained” and never is. Sort of a more sophisticated “Blair Witch Project.” He re-teams with his “Primal Fear” costar Laura Linney who walks around much of the time as a useless police officer or a bad version of Frances McDormand in “Fargo”. But it’s Debra Messing of television’s “Will and Grace” who steals our attention for the short time she’s on the screen.
