REVIEW: The Fourth Kind (2009)
The Fourth Kind
Rated: R
Starring: Mila Jovovich
My rating: 2.5 stars.
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With Paranormal Activity and The Fourth Kind in theaters this week at the same time, you have a choice: Ghosts or Aliens.
I'll put it this way for you: Go for the aliens because The Fourth Kind delivers the scares Paranormal Activity promised.
I know The Fourth Kind is getting terrible reviews. Other critics are writing about the bad acting, the no-direction, the mocumentary style doesn't work, etc... Not me. I say this is a decent movie, but not without problems.
The narrative is weak. We start with a story of Dr. Abigail Tyler (Mila Jovovich) and her husband, Will. It starts with a murder, or so we're told. Will is dead. Dr. Tyler, a psychologist, has to find answers.
They live in Nome, Alaska, where there is the highest rate of unsolved disappearances and murders in the country. The FBI has visited the town over 2,000 times. What is going on?
It's an obvious question with a basic answer: Alien abductions, of course.
Well, duh. I didn't buy it, but the film, which alleges it's a reenacted documentary, slowly turned me.
“You can't dispute the video,” Dr. Tyler says. “The evidence doesn't lie.”
Dr. Tyler films all her patients, most of whom describe seeing a white owl outside a window just before they are abducted or something horrible visits them. This horrible thing is even caught on audio tape once, and spoke in an ancient human language. It says “I am God.”
OK, riiiiiight.
The Fourth Kind is relentless at making you believe, despite its shortcomings.
Is it poorly acted? Yes.
Is it silly? Yes.
Is it believable? Maybe.
The biggest problem I have is with the approach by director Olatunde Osunsanmi. It's a documentary of sorts with fill-in-the-blanks scenes. It's as if he tries to connect the dots between on-camera tapes and audio recordings. The issue with that is the only one who would talk to him about any of these events was Dr. Tyler, who is clearly unstable from the moment we see the “real”Dr. Tyler on camera giving an interview with Osunsanmi.
She believes her own tales, but a good journalist will tell you that one always needs a second source. There isn't one present here, which questions the validity of the entire film and project.
So Dr. Tyler believes there's some alien presence in Nome. No one else does. It's even unclear at the end of the film what anyone but Tyler actually believes.
That's a glaring error in making The Fourth Kind a great movie and a great story. That said, it's not a ghost story.
The truth behind the film is that there were 24 disappearances in Nome over the last 40 years. This film is based on a theory that the disappearances were the result of several alien visits. It's hard to trace the truth behind the film's claims of “archival footage” and “actual audio.” Dr. Abigail Tyler does not exist. It's either an alias or a fictitious character.
No one knew about this story before the movie.
No one is talking about its truth.
No one knows much of anything, and the Internet has provided little answers and unfortunately makes the entire film science-fiction. There is no truth to anything you see.
So what do I do now? I have to base it as an original movie. My favorite genre is “drama based on real life.” Well, this, until I discovered it wasn't real, fit into that genre. Now that it's not, I have to say it's not a good movie.
I mean, the acting, especially by Osunsanmi, is horrific. The narrative is weak, twisted, and seems to get lost here and there. It's like when you were a kid and may have told a lie. And then that lie turned into another lie, and another lie, and another lie. By the end of it, you don't even know how one got to the other and which started what. Huh? Some people say that cucumbers taste better pickled.
