The Call Reviews
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
In lesser hands, we would have grown bored right away, because the large majority of this film shows us two people talking on a phone. Anderson, however, ratchets up the tension, aided by a lean, mean script by Richard D'Ovidio , and managed to keep me on the edge of my seat through most of it. Things do run off the rails in the last act, where Halle Berry manages to ignore ALL of her considerable training and become the person audiences are guaranteed to scream such things as, "Don't go in there!" and "Girl!!!".
Additionally, there are a few too many loose ends (seriously with the inability to track the call?) and shoddy police work (if only the cops had looked around a little bit more), and I could have done without Anderson's annoying habit of freeze frames right before something excessively violent was about to happen. The editing is crisp and there isn't one ounce of fat in the film. It hits GO and GOES! Berry is appropriately tense and Breslin proves scrappy, but poor Michael Imperioli is not going to let this topple THE SOPRANOS on his resume. A big shout out to my friend, Rakefet Abergel, who shows up briefly as a fellow operator. WTG Girl!
All in all, THE CALL plays out like an exciting series pilot. Imagine if Clarice Starling from SILENCE OF THE LAMBS could solve crimes using a headset and a good GPS, et voila! It's not terribly deep or original, but it does the job.
Super Reviewer
The story follows a LAPD 9-1-1 phone operator (Halle Berry) who seeks out vengeance for the murder of a young girl after she accidentally causes her death by calling her phone and alerting the intruder in her home. When the same intruder kidnaps another girl (Abigail Breslin) she gets into action and tries to redeem herself by saving this girl.
The plot of the film is a very long description of what to do if you are a female who is kidnapped by a crazy guy, and it doesn't work. I like the idea of somebody being shown how to escape a psychopath but it really just didn't all add up on the screen. Mainly because the characters don't matter and we never really grow to care about any of them. We are given some innocent and cliché girl near the beginning of the film (played by Breslin) who is sweet and very sympathetic to many audience members, and she also has a friend with her is a bit of a handful to say the least. Than within a few minutes of introducing this character she is kidnapped and we are instantly supposed to root for her and actually care about her, and personally for me I need a little more than some boring characteristics and 3 minutes of screen time to care about who she is. Now the 9-1-1 operator must save her and that is the overall point of the film. I do not criticize the film for this but I just wish we had been given more and I felt that it just didn't deliver. Berry's character is somewhat likable but that is mainly because Berry is such a good actress, which makes me question why she chose such an odd character with her great talents. I couldn't stand the villain of the film, who was nothing more than a prime example of how a villain should not be written in a film. He was just crazy and had no other characteristics or goals that made me care about who he was or what he's done. I will admit this script provides some tense and exciting moments, but it's an overall lazy script that felt like it should've been a short film other than a full feature.
The cast has some very good talent that I believe was the main reason this received any buzz, and they can thank Berry for providing enough talent for a lazy film. Halle Berry gives an emotional performance from an imperfect character, and although she is hidden beneath a boring script I could see that she is still giving it her all in this film. At the beginning of the film I could see some brilliant acting as she looks at the horrors of her own failure, and it really impressed me that she could do so much with so little to work with. This is nothing award worthy, but it still shows me she is a brilliant actress who should not level herself to films like this. Abigail Breslin screams and cries for about 90% of this film, so it was very difficult to rate her performance since she in the trunk of a car for a long period of time. I cannot see why they needed her in the film, I mean they could've gotten any random girl off the street but instead they said "no we need to get Abigail Breslin for this." I just felt like she provided very little to a very boring character. Morris Chestnut wasn't bad, but he really didn't do much that helped enhance the movie or make it memorable. He is establishing himself as a very forgettable actor. Michael Eklund may be a good actor hidden behind a very stupid character, I mean I just couldn't believe how cliché and sad the writers must've been to give pretty much the exact same kidnapper from "Taken." Overall a pretty dull cast with the exception of Berry who is the main reason I, and others, saw this flick.
The Call isn't a movie we can enjoy or talk about, it's just a film that will be forgotten within a few months and will fall into the long history of forgotten films. It's very difficult to review a movie like this because there really is very little to talk about because the film doesn't do anything new that we haven't seen before. Without a doubt many audience members will love the film because they have very low standards and don't care that the film is predictable, but I just have high standards that must be met with a film like this. Director Brad Anderson might know what it takes to make a good thriller, but the script confines him from making any big strides and it makes his direction feel like something I could find on an episode of NCIS. I expect to be amazed when I go to the movies, but this feels just like something we could find on NBC every week. New ideas are something I love to see, and sadly we rarely see this anymore and I am forced to sit through films like this that waste my time and only entertain me every 30 minutes. It low-budget might have been the cause of this, or maybe the lack of good writers, but whatever the problem was it just didn't work well on screen. I can assure you this is not one of the worst film I have seen this year, but I will recommend that you stay away unless you want to have your money wasted.
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Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
In this R-rated thriller, veteran 911 operator Jordan (Berry) takes a life-altering call from a kidnapped teenage girl (Breslin), only to realize that she must confront a serial killer from her past to save the victim.
Oscar-winner Berry has slummed it before (BAPs, Dark Tide). Her latest vehicle, however, starts out as a Sorry, Wrong Number-style thriller about an operator who's helplessly confined her desk listening to a murderous game. Oh, it's not entertainingly tense by any stretch, but it's more interesting than what develops-a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure bout of heroism with a ludicrous 11th Hour twist. The scariest call must've been Berry signing off on this flick to her agent after reading the script.
Bottom line: Dial M For Moron.
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
Grade: B-
Director: Brad Anderson
Cast: Halle Berry, Abigail Breslin, Michael Eklund, Morris Chestnut
Rated: R
Running Time: 94 Minutes
Sometimes, I just wish that movies didn't need to construct cohesive endings to conclude themselves, and could just fade away halfway through the third act. Too often, movies set the bar for their conclusion ridiculously high with two superb opening acts, but fall apart in the last 20 minutes. Although there're some notable exceptions to the trend (most recently being Sylvester Stallone's Bullet to the Head: An aggressively mediocre action flick almost entirely redeemed by an incredible finale), in the majority of cases it's the ending which causes the majority of dilemmas for an otherwise decent feature. Rarely is there a film which has such an outstandingly abysmal opening that it detracts from what was otherwise a positive experience, while meanwhile a terrible ending can make you re-think the otherwise thorough feature which came before it. For those looking for me to use a film to justify this argument, look no further than the 2/3s thrilling Halle Berry vehicle The Call.
While the first 60 minutes are admittedly ludicrous at times ("The Hive" where the 911 operators are based feels pulled out of an episode of CSI), they at least remain a constant tension which deflects the silliness of the details and the occasional plot holes. Halle Berry stars as a troubled former 911 operator who quit her job after a mistake resulted in the death and possible rape of a young teenaged girl by a psychotic man. However, after a second female teenager, played by Abigail Breslin, finds herself trapped in the trunk of the same man's car, Berry finds the chance to redeem herself by saving Breslin's life and bringing the man to justice. The opening two acts almost entirely take place either from within The Hive or in the dingy trunk of a car: There're no action sequences, no substantial supporting characters, and the psychotic kidnapper is merely psychotic because he has to be to drive the plot. It's a successful minimalist thriller; one that brings back fond memories of Joel Schumacher's 2002 forgotten classic Phone Booth.
It isn't until the final third where director Brad Anderson leaves the minimalist structure, and has Berry venture out into the wilderness to track down Breslin. At this point, the film strains credibility because Berry, as a 911 operator, shouldn't have any experience in the field. However, this isn't the biggest flaw of the third act. Anderson wants to explain why Breslin is being kidnapped, which isn't a terrible idea in theory but flounders in execution. Rather than keeping him as the mysterious psychopath, we delve into his fairly uninteresting backstory, which takes the compellingly violent mystery man and transforms him into the stock-and-trade troubled weirdo. Worse yet, we watch as he tortures Breslin; briefly taking the former minimalist thriller and turning it into gory midnight horror for a few moments. This is a film which thrives on tension, not shocking behavior. It's disturbing, but it lacks purpose when compared to the rest of the feature. We already know this man is violent and crazy: Why show us the torture which was already implied. The final major issue with the third act is that it does away with one of the driving forces early on in the film: That Berry wants this man brought to justice. Rather than arresting him as she originally set out to do, she essentially kills him by trapping him in his torture chamber. Berry's character can't distribute vigilante justice, because the 911 operator embodies traditional justice.
I would recommend this movie to anyone looking for a good thriller; just walk out when Berry decides to leave The Hive. 60 minutes followed by mystery and curiosity is certainly better than 60 minutes followed by 30 of soul crushing disappointment.
