The Fourth Kind (2010): C-

“I’m actress Milla Jovovich,” states Milla Jovovich while explaining, during an awfully awkward prologue, the conceit of The Fourth Kind, a film in which Jovovich and fellow actors reenact supposedly real footage involving a string of possible alien abductions in Nome, Alaska in 2000. That authentic video is largely culled from the therapy sessions of Dr. Abbey Tyler, whose patients – all experiencing similar bizarre dreams of an ominous owl – freak out like possessed maniacs under hypnosis. In director Olatunde Osunsanmi’s fictionalized sequences, we also see these sessions, often side-by-side with the “verité” segments, as well as witness Dr. Tyler’s (Jovovich) interactions with a skeptical colleague (Elias Koteas), a close-minded sheriff (Will Patton) and her two kids, one of whom has gone blind thanks to the recent murder of her father. If the Unsolved Mysteries vibe of Osunsanmi’s recreations aren’t tip-off enough – what with their raft of smoky blue shadows and spooky suggestions of otherworldly enigmas – The Fourth Kind’s ostensible archival footage proves so clunky and transparently phony that the entire gimmick collapses. Of course, its imdb.com cast list also disproves the film’s claims of being partly comprised of documentary material. Yet regardless of such “is it true?” questions, the larger issue is the second-rate nature of this thriller’s performances and scripting, both of which go for giant emotional explosions rather than any sense of logic or nuance. And as for suspense or horror, well, there’s simply nothing of the kind to be found here.

Comments

[Luciano]

I could not agree more: "The Fourth Kind’s ostensible archival footage proves so clunky and transparently phony that the entire gimmick collapses." This is exactly the problem of the movie, and that horrible prologue.