Mute Witness

Produced at the height of the Sundance era, when post-modern twists and genre-mashups were reinventing the idea of the “independent” film, Mute Witness (1995) is a thriller with moderate ambitions.  But that in itself was a refreshing change of pace from the rash of overbaked Basic Instinct clones cluttering theaters at the time.  Writer-director Anthony Waller’s movie is a Hitchcockian throwback with delusions of DePalma’s sexual depravity.  But for all its snuff film plot devices and final girl histrionics, there’s a Scooby Doo innocence that prevails over those commercial impulses.

Working special effects on a low-budget slasher shooting in Moscow, Billy Hughes (Marina Zudina) witnesses what she believes to be a snuff-film-in-progress shooting in the studio after hours.  The two culprits insist it was a fake, but Billy’s handicap (she’s a mute, hence the film’s title) makes it hard to plead her case.  Russian authorities dismiss everyone for lack of evidence, but Billy’s ordeal is only just beginning!

 

Any review of Mute Witness should keep the synopsis vague since most of the fun comes from figuring out exactly what’s real and what’s not.  Suffice to say that Waller’s film masterfully milks the suspense, staging some tense scenes of hide-and-seek between Billy and her pursuers.  It even leans into Rear Window and North by Northwest territory with undercover agents and a debonair criminal mastermind (Alec Guiness) thrown in for good measure.  The film’s central conceit of a mute main character doesn’t come off as a cheat; Waller even designs a clever computer phone sequence that adds a whole new spin to the damsel in distress.

 

If there are any flaws it’s the supporting cast – Billy’s extended filmmaker family – who provide a weak attempt at comic relief.  Every time the film cuts away to their clumsy assistance, things come to a screeching halt.  It’s just a case of trying to juggle one ball too many.  But it’s a petty complaint for a film that manages to do so much with old ideas and a bit of indie ingenuity.

 

Released by Arrow Films in a 4K Ultra HD Limited Edition Blu-ray, this one will be a real discovery for those who didn’t catch it the first time around.  Was a 4K restoration necessary?  Probably not, as there’s still a liberal amount of grayness to the overall production inherent in the original material, but why not go big?  And Arrow does…with two new commentary tracks, visual essays on the snuff film urban legend and film-within-a-film genre, location scouting, an investor presentation and the original footage from Alec Guiness’ scene which was filmed ten years prior to the film’s release.  

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