'The Call' Movie Review
"The Call" is two-thirds an awesome thriller and one-third a ludicrous movie routine. It may not be entirely credible, but it's mostly entertaining. A warning is still best served -- as it is still a disappointing fare upon the realization that its top-notch potential gets squandered by a dishonest twist and an idiotic resolution.
This extreme-jeopardy thriller dials a tense, almost real-time phone call between two strangers, one is in the 911 hive and the other is in a serial killer's car trunk. Unfortunately, when the phone call ends, the thrill ride also hangs up. From there, the tale spirals into an avalanche of mainstream clichés and predictability. In fact, the film's last 15 minutes merely relies on cheap thrills… suddenly it feels like an entirely different movie. It's like an exciting phone discussion that suddenly gets disconnected, then calling back shockingly leads to a wrong number.
Topbilled by Halle Berry and Abigail Breslin, this nail-biting piece revolves around a 911 call made by a teen abducted by a serial killer. Director Brad Anderson succeeds in investing on the emotional and thematic aspects of the story, particularly the long exposition of the major characters' phone conversation. However, he finds his classy storytelling skills in peril when the script's last few sequences settle for sheer mediocrity. He encounters a fatal slip from the narrative's rightfully hyped-up tension to a critically collapsed finale. With all the contrived details from that point on, the tension and everything good about the picture eventually seep away.
The main strength of this halfway-effective film is the way it builds up its suspense-filled dynamics from one scene to the next. Its ultimate weakness is its dumb ending, which takes a disastrous turn toward self-destruction. It attempts to let the audience believe that a brilliant, protagonist eventually becomes a dim-witted heroine. Clearly, when the movie focuses on the lead actress on her headset, there is a compelling level of heart-pounding entertainment to indulge in. The moment she decides to leave her desk, things are put on hold until the final turn of events betray the characters, as well as the audience.
For the most part, this cinematic work turns out quite good for a little too long to actually lose the chance of becoming an entertaining commercial flick. It's not the worst of its kind, especially for its nerve-racking way of presenting two people talking on the phone for most of its running time. Except for a few questionable details in its beginning and middle parts and its clearly poor ending that utterly disconnects, it still delivers many of its intended goods with ample energy. In doing so, its last few minutes of shallow thrill ride remains slightly passable, considering most of the viewers' heart rates are still on the run.
This psycho-horror tale grabs at chunks of renowned abduction, crime, and horror movies including "Silence of the Lambs," "Taken," and "Maniac." Too bad, it winds up as a lesser variation of all of them. If only the screenplay were able to provide chilling effects to the story's rather rote resolution, it could have been a completely gripping, nail-biting classic.
Berry, Breslin, and Michael Eklund offer fine acting performances that help keep the faltering script afloat. They live by the movie's needed jump scares in order to service the requirements of its race-against-time story.
Ultimately, "The Call" turns out as a cinematic crime. This flawed treat relies on the moldy trends of its genre components, which ruin its initial potential to become a clever claustrophobic thriller. It falls prey to the creation of latter-generic puzzle pieces that are sloppily cut to fit a poorly made third act. Nevertheless, it's the kind of genre offering that can play well to a crowded house filled with thriller fans that have lesser demands for value-ridden materials.