All these times I keep trying - and failing - to come back to Ciao properly...
All these times I keep trying - and failing - to come back to Ciao properly...
Member since:30.10.2002
Reviews:168
Members who trust:141
Finally, Phone Booth has arrived in our cinemas. After months of speculation about how they could possibly make the seemingly easily exhaustible plot into an entire film, the answer became clear. Yes, they managed it all right, but only, it seems, by making the film incredibly short. 81 minutes is definitely at the lower end of the range of film lengths, but trust me, it seems much longer...
Meet Stu Shepard. Stu is a relatively unimportant New York publicist, but likes to see himself as having slighlty more influence. He's your typical media type - flashy suits, expensive watches, and trotting around New York every day conducting his whole life with two mobile phones.
Lying and deceit are good friends to Stu - he lies to his clients about how famous he can make them, he lies to his employees, he lies to his wife, Kelly. Every day he goes to the same phone booth in the same street, removes his wedding ring (you see, he obviously has a conscience) and phones his girlfriend Pam.
But one day, Stu's life takes a dramatic turn - as he is leaving the phone
booth, the phone starts to ring. Curiously, he picks up the phone, and finds himself speaking to a sniper threatening to kill him if he leaves the booth - he must do exactly as the sniper says if he wants to stay alive...
So, is Joel Schumacher's latest effort any good? In my opinion, this is an incredibly ambitious film - it has to maintain our action for around an hour of Colin Farrell standing in what is basically a glass cage. However, Schumacher definitely keeps the momentum going, and this is added to by the various minor characters portrayed in the film, such as a group of prostitutes and their pimp (this is definitely a laugh-out loud section of the film!), the sympathetic and recently divorced police officer who tries to negotiate with Stu, believing him to have shot Mario, the pimp, and the negotiator himself, whose relationship with the aforementioned police officer most definitely isn't a friendly one.
Farrell's acting is, surprisingly, rather good. In Minority Report I thought he was a little wooden, slightly better in The Recruit, but before seeing this film I really couldn't imagine how he would manage to hold our attention while standing in a phone booth for an hour. Oh, but he definitely managed! His acting was, indeed, a bit wooden at first, but as the tension and the panic set in, he really came to life, transforming himself beautifully from a cocky and careless hotshot into an incredibly desperate man who finds himself trapped with seemingly no way out. The only problem is that Farrell's Irish accent started to emerge as the tension set in...but this is only a minor flaw.
I wouldn't say by any means that this film is the best "edge-of-your-seat" thriller I'd seen, but it definitely provides some tension and entertainment. The creepiness and threat of the mysterious voice on the phone is perhaps a little marred by the fact that the voice is so recognisable as that of Kiefer Sutherland, and so the ending does in fact come as slightly predictable.
In my opinion, 81 minutes is definitely a good length for this film - any more and it would have dragged, and less and some of the action would almost certainly have been lost. Schumacher himself realises that the main focus of a film has to be the situation that the main character is in, and how others feel about it. This situation features its fair share of twists and turns, although some of them are very easily predictable.
I would like to say something about the acting of the other characters in the film, but there's not really much I can say - the majority of the other characters are not really given a chance to develop. I guess the other major character, apart from Stu and the sniper, is the police officer - and I'd rather not comment on his appalling acting, to be honest. The characters of the two women - Stu's wife and girlfriend - have relatively small parts, but they manage to look upset at all the right moments, so they do their jobs well.
Overall, I'd have to give the film 4 stars. It's definitely not the most amazing thriller I've ever seen - there are flaws in the plot, some of the acting isn't that great, and I definitely have to take off points for the opening of the film (a big spiel about how many mobiles phones there are in New York, how many pay phones, blah, blah, blah).
I just get the feeling that this film was funded by mobile phone companies, wanting people to stop using phone booths... ;)
CAST:
Colin Farrell as Stu Shepard Kiefer Sutherland as the caller Forest Whitaker as Captain Ramey Radha Mitchell as Kelly Shepard Katie Holmes as Pamela McFadden
DIRECTOR: Joel Schumacher
WRITTEN BY: Larry Cohen
RUNNING TIME: 81 minutes approx.
RATING: 15
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Thriller - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Timothy West, Neil Morrissey, Tara Fitzgerald, Annette Crosbie, Pauline Quirke, Rob Brydon, Denise Van Outen, John Thomson, Kevin Whately, David Suchet
Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: Bharat Nalluri, Rob Bailey, Andy Wilson - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner
You're right about the Irish accent, but I think it only made him cuter!
magnificent8th 06.05.2003 22:08
sounds like a good watch- i hate films that drag on (titanic! oh please) :)
ladyofsorrow 06.05.2003 16:34
Excellent op! I was tempted to see this film purely for the novelty factor of the concept, I think I'll see it after my exams when I have lots of free time to waste! I like what you said 'I just get the feeling that this film was funded by mobile phone companies, wanting people to stop using phone booths... ;)' - in an indirect way you could be right lol!
For a film confined almost entirely to one tiny location,Phone Boothhas been the centre of ... more
a lot of off-screen action: changing lead man from Will Smith to Jim Carrey to Colin Farrell, with various directors attached, and finally postponed as a result ...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell) is an arrogant publicist lying his way to success in New York. ... more
Everything changes however when he unknowingly answers a call in a phone booth he's been using to cheat on his wife. Now he is at the mercy of the caller (Kiefer...
For a film confined almost entirely to one tiny location,Phone Boothhas been the centre of ... more
a lot of off-screen action: changing lead man from Will Smith to Jim Carrey to Colin Farrell, with various directors attached, and finally postponed as a result ...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
A single phone call can change a man's life...or possibly end it. Stu Shepard is a ... more
self-centered New York City publicist who suddenly finds himself on the deadly end of a high-powered rifle scope. Now it's a real-time race against the clock as Stu must...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
![Phone Booth [2003] [DVD]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78525005.jpg "Phone Booth [2003] [DVD]")
very helpful by (97%):
helpful by (3%):
