April 2003
Phone Booth :

Reviewed by Angela Harmon

Phone Booth
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Director: Joel Schumacher
Producers: Gil Netter, & David Zucker
Screenwriter: Larry Cohen
Music: Harry Gregson-Williams
Cast: Colin Farrell, Forest Whitaker, Katie Holmes, Radha Mitchell, & Keifer Sutherland

Colin Farrell as a slick media consultant who is trapped in a phone booth after being told by a caller - a serial killer with a sniper rifle - that he'll be shot dead if he hangs up in 20th Century Fox's Phone Booth - 2003

Colin Farrell, John Enos III and Arian Ash in 20th Century Fox's Phone Booth - 2003

Forest Whitaker and Colin Farrell in 20th Century Fox's Phone Booth - 2003

Colin Farrell as a slick media consultant who is trapped in a phone booth after being told by a caller - a serial killer with a sniper rifle - that he'll be shot dead if he hangs up in 20th Century Fox's Phone Booth - 2003

Arian Waring Ash, Paula Jai Parker, Colin Farrell

    

This slick thriller about a slimy agent type who picks up a phone and is told he will die if he hangs up is about as high concept as it gets. However, Schumacher flips the script when the story becomes a predictable and tedious tale of truth and redemption.

Writer Larry Cohen and director Joel Schumacher create an eerily appropriate world where lack of privacy, greed, lies and snipers are everywhere. Incidentally, Phone Booth was scheduled to open last fall but 20th Century Fox delayed its release in the wake of the Washington D.C. sniper case. Yet, their depiction of New York, filled with over-the-top pimps and prostitutes, a trigger-happy NYPD, and ethnic street peddlers seems passé and devoid of the New York legacy left by former NYC mayor Rudy Guiliani and the killing of Amadou Diallo. Schumacher does succeed in creating a frenetic pace and rising tension with cool camera tricks and an interesting ticking soundtrack. (Hmmm’ maybe Kiefer Sutherland loaned them the 24 soundtrack!)

Colin Farrell plays a convincing Stu Shepard, a low-rent, fast talking, unprincipled publicist who picks up a ringing phone in the last phone booth in New York, and finds himself held captive by a mysterious caller who knows everything about his life.

The Caller, who considers himself to be a "moral adjuster," says he’s killed twice before and will kill Stu if he doesn’t repent for his sins. Poor Stu! Sure, he’s a jerk and he’s been lying to his wife (Radha Mitchell) and his girlfriend (Katie Holmes), with whom he hasn’t fornicated, but to kill him seems a bit much. Stu thinks that he is off the hook after he fesses up to his wife and girlfriend, but an incident with a pimp and some pesky prostitutes (the lead prostitute stereotypically played by Paula Jai Parker) results in a murder and pulls him deeper into The Caller’s divine plan.

When the police arrive, they are convinced that Stu is responsible for the murder. Forest Whitaker does a first-rate job as sensitive, neurotic Captain Ramey who negotiates with Stu. Farrell and Whitaker have an interesting chemistry but their clichéd dialogue at times gets in the way. The story completely loses steam as Stu goes through a complete moral evolution in front of the world (a media circus has gathered at the scene). This ending is pretty lame and leaves you wondering: Did Stu jump through emotional hoops for this?

Fortunately, the film is only 80-minutes long and the morality lessons are quickly forgotten. But in the end, this Phone isn't worth depositing the fifty cents, keep your change!