J.P. Bumstead | Through the Shattered Lens

Originally broadcast in 1985, Into Thin Air is a made-for-TV movie that is based on a true story. It’s film that brings to life the horror of every family’s nightmare. Brian Walker (Tate Donavon) is an intelligent, soft-spoken, and somewhat naive college student in Ottawa. He’s been accepted into a summer writing program in Colorado. As he gets in the van that he will be driving to Colorado, he promises his mother, Joan (Ellen Burstyn), that he’ll call her when he reaches Nebraska and again when he reaches Colorado.

Brian drives away and that’s the last time that Joan ever sees her son. Brian calls from Nebraska and talks to his brother, Stephen (Sam Robards). Joan arrives home just as Stephen is saying goodbye. Brian never calls from Colorado. He has vanished, seemingly into thin air.

Joan, Stephen, and Joan’s ex-husband, Larry (played the great character actor Nicholas Pryor) travel to America to search for him. At one point, Stephen thinks that he’s spotted Brian’s van on the road and chase after it, just to discover that it’s a different van. Joan talks to cops in Nebraska and Colorado and discovers that different jurisdictions don’t work together or share information. As the days pass, Joan keeps hoping that Brian is somehow still alive….

I was about ten minutes into this film when I started sobbing. I pretty much cried through the entire film. Some of that was because I knew that they were never going to see Brian again. Some of that was because of the powerful, heartfelt performances of Ellen Burstyn, Nicholas Pryor, and Sam Robards. Most of it was because this film did such a good job of capturing the feeling of hopelessness and the dread that comes with not knowing what has happened to someone who you love. I found myself crying for Brian’s lost potential. He was a writer and he was engaging in a time-honored writing tradition. He was taking a road trip and he was discovering the world. He deserved better than whatever happened to him. He deserved see his novel sitting in a bookstore. Instead, he ran into the wrong people.

It’s the little details that really got to me. Stephen flies into a rage when he sees his younger brother wearing one of Brain’s sweaters. Joan momentarily gets her hopes up when she discovers that Brian reported some lost traveler’s checks, just to have that hope shot down when she’s told that the bank can’t reveal where Brian called them from unless Brian himself gives permission. When the van eventually turn up in Maine, it’s been totally trashed by whoever took it from Brian.

Eventually, Joan hires a private detective and Robert Prosky is well-cast as Jim Conway, a seemingly cynical ex-cop who dedicates himself to trying to provide closure for the Walkers. The scene where he finally discovers what happened to Brian is one of the strongest in the film and one of the most upsetting. So many people could have saved Brian if they only had the courage to speak up.

Into Thin Air is a powerful film. No one should ever be forgotten.

In the city of Spokane, Washington, Kevin Coe (Dale Midkiff) is a real estate agent who always tries to come across as being the slickest guy in the room. With his quick smile and his moderately expensive suits, Kevin certainly seems to fit the stereotype. It’s only when you start to look a little closer that the surface starts to crack.

For someone who goes out of his way to come across as being confident, Kevin is actually very immature and more than a little whiny. He’s living with a perfectly nice young woman named Ginny (Heather Fairfield) but it’s obvious that he’s keeping secrets from her. He comes home one morning with scratches on his face and, when she asks about them, he claims that 1) he got mauled by a dog and 2) he doesn’t need any sort of medical attention. Kevin is someone who frequently loses his job because he’s just not that good at it. When one boss fires him, Kevin replies that he’s going to start his own business and someday, maybe he’ll be the one doing the hiring and firing. It’s classic empty cope.

And then there’s Kevin’s mother. Ruth Coe (Elizabeth Montgomery) is someone who likes to present herself as being a grand diva, in the manner of a Golden Screen star. She’s extremely close to her son, at times overprotective and at times overly critical. Kevin often goes from yelling at his mom to dancing with her within minutes. Ruth makes it clear that she doesn’t like Ginny and Ginny eventually grows to dread seeing Ruth wandering around their house, uninvited. And yet, despite all of the time that Kevin spends talking about how wants to get away from his mother and to live his own life, Kevin doesn’t really make much of an effort to do that.

Meanwhile, Detective Liz Trent (Talia Balsam) is investigating a series of rapes that have been committed in Spokane. When she comes to suspect that Kevin is the rapist, Kevin claims that it’s not true and it’s just another case of the world treating him unfairly. Ruth stands by her son and eventually shocks everyone with just how far she’s willing to go to try to keep him out of prison.

Sins of the Mother is based on a true story. Kevin Coe may have only been convicted of four rapes but he is suspected of having committed at least 41. In prison, he insisted he was innocent and refused to attend any counseling programs. He also refused to apply for parole, even after he became eligible. After his criminal sentence was completed in 2008, he was sent to the Special Commitment Center on Washington’s McNeil Island, which is a institution that houses sexual predators who are likely to reoffend. I’m writing this review on September 15th. Coe, as of this writing, is scheduled to be released from McNeil on October 3rd so, by the time you’re reading this, he could already be out. Coe is 78 and is reported to be in fragile health.

As for the movie, it’s mostly memorable for Elizabeth Montgomery’s over the top performance as Ruth Coe. Sweeping into every scene and delivering her lines in what appears to be a deliberately fake-sounding Southern accent, Montgomery chews the scenery with gusto. While the rest of the cast often seems to be going through the motions, Montgomery grabs hold of this movie and refuses to surrender it.