The Call (B- or 2.5/4 stars)
I saw 'The Call' (directed by Brad Anderson) in the comfort of my own home; by myself. It wigged me out, at times; particularly in the 1st 45 minutes or so. It engages in the moment. Then, the film kind of slips into Law & Order territory. This isn't a great film. And yet, I get the impression that if I'd seen it with 200 people in a theater jumping out of their skin or squirming in their seats from tension ... I might have liked it even more. The plot may not be a classic for the ages, but for a Friday night flick which provides 90 minutes of escape from the world, you could do A LOT worse. The premise is simple, yet intriguing. Halle Berry (and her wig) plays Jordan, a 911 dispatcher, in a phone center the L.A. police call the 'Hive'. Based on the volume of activity at the center, I'd say that the title is apropos.
It is an intensely stressful job, because every single negative thing that happens in L.A. is 1st heard about in this room - and tons of bad things happen in the city of angels. One fateful night, Jordan takes a call from a teen named Leah Templeton (Evie Thompson) reporting a maniac trying to break into her home. Jordan gives the girl great advice, at first ... then she makes a crucial mistake. It's a mistake than anyone could make, but particularly damning considering the line of work she's in. This mistake haunts her for 6 months, so that when she finds herself talking to yet another teen girl, Casey Welson (Abigail Breslin, from Little Miss Sunshine) in crisis, she is hell bent to do everything she can to make sure that this girl doesn't end up like the last one.
Casey wakes up in the trunk of a car barreling down the highway, with a serial killer (Michael Eklund) at the wheel. She has a cell phone on her & calls 911, but it's one of those disposable cells that can't be traced by GPS. Halle Berry takes the call ... of course. Before long, she realizes that she must confront a serial killer from her past. She's desperate to help and, even more desperate not screw this one up. But all seems hopeless. It's a huge city, & all Casey knows is that she is in the trunk of a reddish car with white paint sitting at her side. Some deaths occur. And dispatcher Jordan has to find ways to help this girl escape, but without much time & few options. The screenplay creates suspenseful/nail-biting incidents out of this brutal highway situation; and they are all believable enough.
Berry & Breslin execute the emotional demands of the script very well: calm, frantic, sad, enraged, hysterical, empowered, etc.. They bring us into their strife. Michael Eklund plays the perfect serial killer. Why do I say perfect? Because and he's so convincingly dead-eyed, cold, vile, & pathetic. It doesn't even seem like he's acting. You know, we hear about these abductions in the news all the time. We imagine what's going on in the head of the killer, the heart of the victim, etc.. This movie shows us - very realistically - what those occasions are probably like. Overall, 'The Call' is better than you might expect a movie like this to be.
However, while I LOVE the last line of dialogue in this film, I wish that the last 30 minutes weren't as contrived as they are. The 1st part of the film has personality, spark, & most importantly ... plausibility. For the last 3rd, and after Halle leaves the call center to take matters into her own hands, the some tension seeps away and - as mentioned - the plot becomes like a derivative Law & Order catch-the-killer episode in which vigilante heroes stalk a house & don't kill the bad guy when they think he's down for the count {Grrr}. Actually, where the plot goes (concerning the killer) is reminiscent of the far superior Silence of the Lambs. In any case, I did enjoy much of the movie for what it was. Thrillers can be inherently dumb (and this one has its moments). But far too few actually 'thrill'. This one does.
It is an intensely stressful job, because every single negative thing that happens in L.A. is 1st heard about in this room - and tons of bad things happen in the city of angels. One fateful night, Jordan takes a call from a teen named Leah Templeton (Evie Thompson) reporting a maniac trying to break into her home. Jordan gives the girl great advice, at first ... then she makes a crucial mistake. It's a mistake than anyone could make, but particularly damning considering the line of work she's in. This mistake haunts her for 6 months, so that when she finds herself talking to yet another teen girl, Casey Welson (Abigail Breslin, from Little Miss Sunshine) in crisis, she is hell bent to do everything she can to make sure that this girl doesn't end up like the last one.
Casey wakes up in the trunk of a car barreling down the highway, with a serial killer (Michael Eklund) at the wheel. She has a cell phone on her & calls 911, but it's one of those disposable cells that can't be traced by GPS. Halle Berry takes the call ... of course. Before long, she realizes that she must confront a serial killer from her past. She's desperate to help and, even more desperate not screw this one up. But all seems hopeless. It's a huge city, & all Casey knows is that she is in the trunk of a reddish car with white paint sitting at her side. Some deaths occur. And dispatcher Jordan has to find ways to help this girl escape, but without much time & few options. The screenplay creates suspenseful/nail-biting incidents out of this brutal highway situation; and they are all believable enough.
Berry & Breslin execute the emotional demands of the script very well: calm, frantic, sad, enraged, hysterical, empowered, etc.. They bring us into their strife. Michael Eklund plays the perfect serial killer. Why do I say perfect? Because and he's so convincingly dead-eyed, cold, vile, & pathetic. It doesn't even seem like he's acting. You know, we hear about these abductions in the news all the time. We imagine what's going on in the head of the killer, the heart of the victim, etc.. This movie shows us - very realistically - what those occasions are probably like. Overall, 'The Call' is better than you might expect a movie like this to be.
However, while I LOVE the last line of dialogue in this film, I wish that the last 30 minutes weren't as contrived as they are. The 1st part of the film has personality, spark, & most importantly ... plausibility. For the last 3rd, and after Halle leaves the call center to take matters into her own hands, the some tension seeps away and - as mentioned - the plot becomes like a derivative Law & Order catch-the-killer episode in which vigilante heroes stalk a house & don't kill the bad guy when they think he's down for the count {Grrr}. Actually, where the plot goes (concerning the killer) is reminiscent of the far superior Silence of the Lambs. In any case, I did enjoy much of the movie for what it was. Thrillers can be inherently dumb (and this one has its moments). But far too few actually 'thrill'. This one does.