MOVIE REVIEW - The Fourth Kind

On the heals of Paranormal Activity, is another "out of this world" story with The Fourth Kind. To be honest with you, I don't really know what to make of this movie. It is such a mixed bag of the good and not so good. Let's look it over.

This is the supposedly true story of Dr. Abigail Emily Tyler. She was a Psychologist that uses hypnosis to help her clients see their way through their difficulties. Her practice is in Nome, Alaska. Using government statistics, Nome has had more visits from the Federal Government over the past few years than any other city in the country. Strange disappearances, murders, and flat of unexplained happenings a plenty. After the mysterious death of her husband, she goes on with her life, and finds that many of her clients are having strange sleep habits. and are seeing the same terrifying images that come out in her therapy sessions. What is the root of it? I'll stop there in case you are going.

But there is murder, abductions, and downright terror going on in this town, and some seem to think that this trouble is following her. Is she to blame, or not?

TFK, is a bio-pic/docudrama that has allows you to make the call on whether you believe this story or not. And they make no apologies for it. It's a mixture of Hollywood drama scenes in the true movie form, and a mixture of "actual footage" from Dr. Tyler's sessions with her clients. There is also plenty of actual audio footage plus supposed footage from police dashboard cameras as well. Also there is tons of footage of the actual Dr.Tyler mixed in throughout during an in depth interview with her on some network somewhere. Troubling and convenient too, some of the "actual footage" that would be the most compelling is "distorted" and not discernible at all. To their credit, they don't apologize for it, but it doesn't help the case for being real. That is The Fourth Kind.

This is actually pretty interesting movie making. I'm not at odds with the style of this movie, or the performances. But I have to admit, I can't help but wonder if we're not all getting taken here. Are we being introduced to a sympathetic soul in Dr Tyler and her horrible ordeal, or are we being bamboozled by and incredibly insane mad woman, who is now making a buck off other peoples horrible misfortune? They actually say, "You be the judge" at the movies end. As interesting as some of this movie was in the movie making sense, I am uncomfortable with the motivation of the real Dr. Tyler for bringing this story to the screen. There's just something not right here with me on this one.

The Fourth Kind. I'm just not buying it. I'm leaning heavily towards bamboozled.