Mute Witness Is A Great Suspense Thriller On DVD

2012-02-09T19:09:00.000-08:00

Mute Witness is a 1994 movie starring Marina Zudina, Fay Ripley, and Evan Richards. Written and directed by Anthony Waller. This is also an American-German-Russian joint production. When I first ran across this movie online, by accident, my initial thought was, "this is a B movie". Yes it is. However, probably the best B movie you will ever see. The actors in this movie are all A+. Mute Witness is one of the best movies I have ever seen. It has everything. Drama, intrigue, crime, horror, suspense. From the beginning until the end, this movie doesn't stop delivering.

Billy (Marina Zudina), is a make up artist working on a low budget slasher movie in Moscow, directed by her sisters (Fay Ripley) boyfriend Andy (Evan Richards). Billy is also unable to speak. As the crew is leaving the movie set for the night, Billy realizes she has left a prop, communicates to her sister to go on, she will catch up later, and goes back to retrieve it. As she locates the item, she hears a door slam. When she goes to the window, she sees the caretaker of the warehouse walking away, and quickly realizes she is locked in. She makes a phone call to her sister, and communicates with her by taps on the phone.

However she is interrupted when she hears and discovers a a two man film crew shooting a cheap sex movie, still in the warehouse. Billy is watching from afar when the sex turns sadistic. Billy, horrified at what she has witnessed, backs away, trying to leave undetected, but stumbles and knocks over some equipment, and is discovered. She makes a break for it, pursued by the film crew. Managing to hide and evade from the two men, her sister and boyfriend finally arrive with the police. Billy tells them what she witnessed, but the film crew deny everything and convinces the police it was all staged and done by special effects. The police find no evidence of any wrong doing, and everyone is free to go. However Billy is unaware that her life is in jeopardy.

What she stumbled upon was an international criminal ring. Soon events bring forward detective Larsen (Oleg Yankovsky) who has been tracking this film crew and their ties to a criminal mastermind, known only as the reaper (Alec Guinness). The reaper tells his associates that Billy has a computer disc, retrieve it, and leave no witnesses. Soon, Billy's apartment is broken into, and she is terrorized by the same two guys from the earlier film crew , but now they want to kill her. Billy must get creative if she is going to survive this. She even briefly flashes a neighbor across the way to get help. Soon afterwards, Billy's sister and boyfriend find that their lives are at risk from the same criminal organization, determined on finding the computer disc, again, at all costs.

Another question in this movie. Is detective Larsen legit or is he working for the reaper? You won't know until the very end. Mute Witness is a great movie. It moves very well, and there are plenty of twist and turns. Another thing about this movie. What is real and what is fake? All the characters here are believable top notch actors. This is simply a film within a film. And it works. This is a fast one hour and thirty eight minutes of high octane and high tension entertainment.

Marina Zudina is a great actor. She has every range of emotion. I was blown away by her performance. Being Russian, it is just a shame she never worked in the U.S. She would have been a huge success. Do not miss this movie. It far exceeded my expectations. Rated R with violence, nudity, and a lot less gore than it would have if it had been directed by Brian DePalma, whose influence strongly shapes Mr. Waller's (director) style.

REVIEWS OF MUTE WITNESS

NY TIMES: Anthony Waller's "Mute Witness" is a crafty thriller with a fine taste for the sinister, and loves to remind the audience that appearances can be deceiving.

Allreviews.com: Mute Witness is a Hitchcockian that tests the limits of good taste, but nevertheless is a real treat if you can appreciate, strange, off-beat movies.

Allmovie.com: This movie has a good deal of character-driven humor, which offsets a good deal of dread, but once the thrills start, they're well, pretty, thrilling.

Entertainment Weekly: Mute Witness is a wry thriller, and is something to talk about. B+ rating

New Yorker: Mute Witness is a film that tips it's hat to Brian DePalma's "Blow Out", and the tension builds a good head of steam.

Amazon.com reviewers: 4.5 out of 5 stars from 33 reviews

Yahoo.com: 55 reviewers rate this B-

INTERESTING FACTS ON THE MAKING OF MUTE WITNESS

The film crew was fined by Russian Customs. It was briefly interrupted by Boris Yeltsins's "October Revolution". The weather was -23 degrees. One actor had the diphtheria epidemic, another actor was a drug addict, and yet another actor had a kidney disease.

Mute Witness On DVD

Mute Witness Is A Great Suspense Thriller On DVD