Directed by: Brad Anderson
Rating: ★★★
The Call is an example of the many disposable thrillers that I love seeing in the cinema, because the audience instantly gets involved in them. The stakes are high, the tension is unbearable, and everyone is wishing for a happy ending- and they are usually afforded one.
In The Call, Halle Berry plays Jordan Turner, a Los Angeles 911 operator who plays a deadly game of cat and mouse with a man who has kidnapped a teenage girl called Casey (Breslin) and plans to kill her. The only way Jordan can help Casey is by asking her to stay on the phone until she can figure out what to do and how to save the young girl.
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| Casey is trapped... will she escape? |
The film is in several distinct parts, all of which vary in their entertainment value. The first hour and a bit of the film is really very good- it is both informative and fraught, as we briefly learn about how 911 operators handle emergencies, and we are literally taken on a ride with Casey, who is locked in the boot of a car.
Then the film takes a very un-dramatic turn for the worst. What happens isn’t awful, but in many ways just doesn’t work with the consistently tense first two thirds. But the ending really is unbelievably terrible.
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| Jordan finds working in a 911 call centre more difficult than she imagined... |
My girlfriend Halle Berry and Abigail Breslin give excellent performances and drive the entire movie. The intimate conversations they share are genuine and simultaneously both touching and horrifying. The pace and tone throughout the first hour is incredibly harrowing and intense, which is what a good thriller should be. We want Casey to survive, and we want Jordan to save her, and because of this, the film really works.
Everything else about the film is pretty good, as it is exactly what you expect and want from a decent thriller. There are also quite a few shocks and quite a large amount of gore, but this just adds to the horror of the situation.
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| How will it end? Stupidly, unfortunately... |
I was really annoyed that such a well written, excitingly directed edge of your seat thriller could be ruined by a really tacky ‘Hollywood justice’ ending that is unrealistic and stupid. It almost destroy the entire movie, but luckily doesn’t. The first part is good enough for me rate the movie, in all its entirety, quite positively.
The Call is, for the most part, a heart pumping thriller that includes brilliant performances and edgy action. If you like these types of movies, like I do, then give it a shot. I’ve enjoyed it far more than most of the other movies released this year.
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