Wonderful character development!

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

hyped garbage

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Hitchcock was a class apart, but many seem to believe that they can imitate him. Director Anthony Waller appears to have tried and, like Brian de Palma and other less famous names, fails, because he lacks the touch, the humor, that insubstantial quality that comes with genius. And a pity it is, because the idea is not bad: set in Moscow, a mute "American" girl (beautiful Martina Zudina is actually a Moscow-born Russian, so she was conveniently rendered mute so her accent would not give her away) working as a film production assistant witnesses a "snuff" crime committed in a studio lot, and she is chased for the rest of the film. The premise of film within a film is situated from the outset, with all manner of fake action happening with far too many props, and far too much fantasy for my liking. On positive aspect about the mute witness: there is far less shrieking than tends to be the case with movies of this type. The acting is generally appalling, with Evan Richards as the clumsiest geek you'll see. The Russian ensemble looks generally menacing... and yet less than convincing. Photography is competent enough, even if some stunts and action sequences require a vast amount of suspended belief, especially during the second half of the movie. Screenplay: reasonably gripping during the first half.The really interesting detail about this film is the Mystery Guest Star. In his memoirs entitled "MY NAME ESCAPES ME," Alec Guinness explains that he was approached by Anthony Waller to film a few scenes in the back of a car, and agreed to do so because he (Guinness) thought that it was a student film. Guinness also says that he was never offered, and never received any pay for his part, and in the above mentioned memoirs he makes it clear that he will not fall for a stunt like that again.So, the finest moment in the film was obtained under false pretenses, and that pretty much defines the entire project: as fake as the fake blood that pours throughout the film. I am giving this mediocrity a very generous 6 /10 because of Guinness, one of the finest actors ever to grace the silver screen.

The appealing Russian actress Marina Zudina plays Billy Hughes, an American makeup effects artist working on a slasher film being shot in Moscow. Also on the crew are her sister Karen (Fay Ripley) and Karens' boyfriend Andy (Evan Richards, "Society"), the director of this little epic. One night, Billy is accidentally locked inside the studio after hours. Soon, she stumbles onto the filming of an honest-to-God snuff film. And when these cretinous filmmakers suspect that they've been witnessed, they start relentlessly pursing poor Billy.Admittedly, writer / director Anthony Wallers' movie is at its most absorbing in the early going. It begins on a hilarious note, with a hammy actress overdoing a death scene to the point of absurdity. And Waller doesn't take too long to plunge his leading lady into danger. Some of his action and suspense scenes are *very* riveting, and you're on the edge of your seat (to use an over-used phrase) rooting for Billy to escape the villains. Fortunately, Billy *is* a resourceful character. One of the nicest touches happens when Waller uses special effects trickery to make a hallway seem to stretch out endlessly, as Billy is on the run.But Waller lessens the effectiveness of "Mute Witness" by having the plot get less interesting as it goes along. When a cop character named Larsen (Oleg Yankovskiy) is introduced, it's just not the same when our heroine is given some sort of assistance. Waller does manage to make Larsen continuously ambiguous, as you keep wondering what side he's on. And Waller turns Karen and Andy into goofy comic relief characters; Karen, at least, is proactive and fairly resourceful herself, but Andy is such an incompetent idiot that you keep hoping that the bad guys will kill him off.The pacing is effective for a while, and the filmmaking pretty slick. Zudina is wonderful in the lead, and receives strong support from Ripley and Yankovskiy. Richards is okay, but again, his character is annoying. Igor Volkov and Sergei Karlenkov are spooky as the bad guys. There's a real joy in seeing the "special guest star" who pops up in two scenes as criminal mastermind The Reaper.Even with its flaws, "Mute Witness" is so damn good during its better portions that it still comes recommended.Eight out of 10.

~Spoiler~ Mute Witness is a brilliant suspense film that is completely undermined by the last 30 minutes. The entire first hour is a relentless edge of your seat thrill ride unlike any other. In the film, a mute girl, Billy Hughes, accidentally witnesses a snuff film being made and the killers must eliminate her at all costs. Through narrow escape after narrow escape our heroine isn't allowed a moments rest, and neither is the audience. I wish the whole film would have taken place in the studio with Billy trapped and the killers in pursuit. It was just so damn good. The lighting and camera work is amazing throughout this sequence and the acting by everyone is also quite good. However, seemingly out of nowhere the film changes tone and becomes a cheesy spy movie with everyone looking for some diskette! Let's not forget the goofy American couple running around in completely slapstick fashion. What the hell went wrong? It's like two people were writing the script and they didn't consult one another. The stupidity of the second half is made far worse by the near-perfection of the first. That first hour contained some of the best suspense I've ever seen in a film of this type. It's a shame because Mute Witness could have defined the genre. I still strongly suggest checking it out, but beware the insulting finale.

This film is a superb technical exercise by a director who obviously has talent to spare. It's suspenseful for almost every minute of its running time. The film contains a number of very clever moments, some of which are quite funny, and all of which give the impression that the director has thought deeply about his craft. But the film has at least two major flaw. Firstly, the film is too busy, even giving the appearance of being rushed. This is, of course, intended to make the film more suspenseful, but there are sometimes too many suspense and action 'ideas' thrown together into one short sequence, and this renders a certain amount of the action quite implausible. Everything is played at the same fast pitch; there are virtually no sequences which manage to be slow-paced and dreadfully suspenseful at the same time; in other words, the kind of talent for suspense that we associate with Hitchcock. Nevertheless, for what it is and what it tries to do, this is superior as a thriller to almost anything else out there, with the possible exception of David Fincher at his very best. The other major criticism is that the film has no heart, no humanity. It's not simply that there is not time given to emotion and character development, although this is true enough. Nothing in the film ever particularly engages our sympathy, beyond wanting the heroin escape from her truly repugnant pursuers. Without humanity there is of course no real ethic or moral conflict to be found, and this in my view reduces the film to a great technical exercise which is hollow inside. There is a horrible murder scene in the film, and one desperately wants something (anything) to offset the ugliness. It's inferior to a film like 'Control Room' which balances brilliant suspense sequences with drama, created by minimal but effective exposition of the conflicting motives of the characters. In short, if you're going to be heartless and pitiless with your story and characters, you had better have the brilliance of a Hitchcock (or an Argento at his best) to make up for it. Anthony Waller is almost there, but not quite. Film trivia: Alec Guinness tells in one of his books how he came to do this cameo (which he almost immediately forgot about afterward). The director simply saw Guinness in a restaurant and begged him to do the scene. Guinness kindly obliged him by memorizing and speaking his handful of lines, which of course made no sense to him at all. Guinness' real voice is obviously not being used when we hear the Reaper giving commands via walkie-talkie in the climax. At least they could have taken the time to do a better impersonation of Guinness! It's probably the film's biggest technical gaffe, and certainly the most annoying.