Jan 06 2009
THE PERFECT WITNESS AKA THE UNGODLY MOVIE REVIEW
Wes Bentley at his creepy best.
THE PLOT
Wes Bentley plays Mickey, a down on his luck unemployed filmmaker who lives at home with his mom, apparently has no social life and is an alcoholic to boot. There’s no mention of a current or previous girlfriend and he really only has one friend in the world. Mickey has another problem in that he’s obsessed with the serial killer James Lemac and plasters his walls with articles and pictures about the murders. One night he catches the killer on video and decides to blackmail the man with the footage to make the movie he always wanted to make. Mickey gets footage for his documentary, but at what price will it come?
TRIVIA
The original title of the movie was The Ungodly and it was actually released in some markets under that name.
THOUGHTS
There were a lot of comparisons made between this movie and Mr. Brooks, with many people saying the other movie was a piece of garbage. As a Kevin Costner fan though, I have to say that movie wasn’t too bad and did have some good moments in it. The same could be said about The Perfect Witness.
Wes Bentley is perfect at playing this type of character, the man who seems normal on the surface, but a little warped underneath. In this movie he’s still doing his thing, but they weighed him down with accessories that seem a little distracting at times: bad haircut, thick leather jacket and a big, bushy beard. Mark Burkowski as the serial killer is another hidden treat. He’s slightly warped and twisted and yet you see why women find him attractive at times.
One scene that sticks out in my mind involves the two arguing and being stopped by a police officer. The killer manages to twist the situation and make Mickey look like the crazy one.
There’s not a lot of violence in the movie, which is odd considering the genre. It’s more of a thriller than anything else and not a really great one. It does have some good moments and there are parts of the movie that I enjoyed, but it was also a little slow at times and towards the end things got even slower. It wasn’t too bad, but I won’t be watching it again.
