The Night Listener
Starring: Robin Williams, Toni Collette, Rory Culkin, Bobby Cannavale
Director: Patrick Stettner
The film: An adaptation from Armistead Maupin's novel of the same name - which in turn is based on real-life events that happened to the writer - The Night Listener revolves around a turbulent episode in the life of radio show host Gabriel Noone (Robin Williams) as he establishes a long-distance telephone friendship with an allegedly sexually abused young boy Pete (Rory Culkin) while undergoing a painful break-up with his boyfriend Jess (Bobby Cannavale).
What appears to be an opportunity for Noone to channel his energy into something good, gradually evolves into a journey into much darker territory, as Jess remarks on the similarity between the voices of Pete and Donna (Toni Collette), who claims to have adopted the youngster after he escaped the clutches of his evil parents.
Under the direction of Patrick Stettner and with a screenplay by Maupin - with the collaboration of his former boyfriend Terry Anderson, the basis of the Jess character to Maupin's Noone - The Night Listener is transformed into a psychological thriller, complete with plausible and creepy twists. At the core of the film is a piece of human drama that focuses on the characters' need to be loved: from Noone's hope of linking up with Pete to fill the void left by Jess, to Donna's relentless, near-pathological pursuit of affection and company.