Post by StevePulaski on Mar 16, 2013 15:00:42 GMT -5
Halle Berry in The Call.
Rating: ★★★
Brad Anderson's The Call is a simple, effective thrilling, showcasing how compelling a premise can be even if it packs a few too many incredulous moments. Its main character is a woman named Jordan, played by Halle Berry and a curly black wig, a 911 operator who receives a call early in the film from a young teen girl whose house is about to be victim to a burglary. Jordan instructs her to go into a room, lock the door, and wait for dispatch to arrive to her home. She does so, but just as the burglar is about to leave the home, the call disconnects, with Jordan making the quick-thinking, impulsive decision to call her back. When the girl answers, the burglar knows there is someone in the house, retraces his steps, and abducts her. A few days later, the girl's body is found stripped and battered in a shallow grave.
This prompts her to quit the job (even though one would think she'd be fired on the spot), and six months later, we see her working as a trainer, orientating the newcoming dispatchers. In the middle of an orientation through the dispatch center, aka "The Hive," Jordan finds a woman struggling to keep calm and maintain authority when she receives a call from a teen girl named Casey (Abigail Breslin), who is kidnapped and wakes up in the back of a man's trunk. Jordan takes over, overriding her past demons about failure and guilt, and attempts to get a reading on Casey's whereabouts, along with trying to understand the kidnapper's motive. The first incredulous point comes when we realize that Casey's pay-as-you-go phone can't be traced because those kinds of phones have tracking ability; how can 911 get around the old "*67" trick but not the pesty pay-as-you-go phone?
Anderson's directorial credits include films like Session 9 and Transsiberian and shows like Alcatraz, Boardwalk Empire, and Fringe. Because of this, he incorporates his style of brisk-pacing and tension with true power for almost the entire runtime of The Call. But there's one thing to note here, and that is the film never begins to feel like a tired retread of an episode of Law and Order or one of the aforementioned shows. It has the ability to not only stand alone, but differentiate itself from the barrage of entertainment on TV and on screens.
The closest thing I can compare The Call too, aside from films of the "one-setting" genre like Buried, Frozen, or Open Water is Joel Schumacher's terrifically exhilarating Phone Booth. That film generated some of the finest, purest tension out of a premise one would seemingly find ineffective or unremarkable. Schumacher's ability to direct brewing anger, frustration, and uncertainty (as he also did in Falling Down) is the work of a truly talented director, and The Call generates the kind of suspense and pulse-pounding entertainment he can erect almost on demand.
Berry gives a competent and very likable performance as Jordan, a conflicted, confident, but also very vulnerable woman working a stressful and mentally exhausting job, but the true highlight here, certainly to go under the radar, is Abigail Breslin, who has become quite the versatile young lady. Breslin, who does most of her acting from the trunk of a car, shows us just how captivating she can be when she's given predominately three things to do; scream, cry, and panic. Their chemistry (even though it's usually distanced by two phones) is often very lively and likable, especially when Jordan must reassure the young teenager that her well-being will be maintained by saying that because they are Capricorns, they are fighters.
While providing high-quality suspense, it's nice to see that The Call provides some credible insight into the lives of these 911 dispatchers, who are usually uncredited for their invaluable positions in emergencies. We are told how often they remain clueless to what happens to the caller or the victim(s), because once the dispatch takes over they are not given any kind of closure; just a trip to the "Quiet Room" to catch their breaths and gather their thoughts.
It seems much as been made about the quality of the last twenty-five minutes of the film, which isn't as particularly compelling as the previous hour, but it more-or-less works. This is clearly a difficult film to make, and certainly to end, and the direction that Anderson and writer Richard D'Ovidio is at least watchable and entertaining - despite a questionable turn of events and one laughable line that must conclude the film.
The Call is something of a rarity; a high-quality, mostly-enthralling B-movie that functions on heavy suspense, unpredictability, and mainly, strong central performances. For a project that could've been doomed from the very beginning, the competent crew, and charismatic cast pull through to make a very exciting, wholly entertaining picture. Just for a moment, stop and think before you shortchange Berry and Breslin's efforts here; think about how awkward, stiff, lifeless, and embarrassing of a movie this could've been had no-namers took over their roles. Suddenly, The Call seems more like an efficient movie experience.
My video review of "The Call," www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlWIonz9qR8
Starring: Halle Berry, Abigail Breslin, and Michael Eklund. Directed by: Brad Anderson.