Tough call
VETERAN HOLLYWOOD director Joel Schumacher has an incredible talent for transforming a thin and irrational story into a movie. The 81-minute thriller Phone Booth, stars the 'new Brad Pitt' Colin Farrell (above) as young publicist Stu Shepherd.
Stu is a small potato in the Big Apple who elbows his way to the top by lying. He has three mobile phones, but uses a phone booth to call his love interest Pamela McFadden (Katie Holmes) every day. She doesn't realise he is married - to Kelly (Radha Mitchell). One day he is in the phone booth, when the phone rings. He answers it and the caller threatens to kill Stu, or the pedestrians on the busy street, if he leaves the phone booth.
In a way, Phone Booth is interesting. It is a real time film, describing what actually happens in 81 minutes. Most of the scenes were shot in one location, featuring only one street corner and one phone booth. The camera work makes the movie nice to look at, with lots of fancy editing and screen-inside-screen. But to make this seemingly simple setting dramatic, a super-smart script is essential, and this is what Phone Booth lacks.
With such a short screening time, it is easy to imagine how much the film will tell you. Though there are some funny lines and tense moments, the plot, which is quick and tight in the beginning, starts to gradually unwind. The dodgy ending, where the murderer finally appears, provides an explanation which couldn't be more unconvincing.
Nevertheless, Farrell delivers a solid performance, considering he can only stand in the phone booth and talk. But still this movie only merits a $15 VCD, which you can watch at home and go to the loo when-ever you want.
