Phone Booth

The delayed release of Joel Schumacher's Phone Booth has finally happened - so was it worth the wait?

20th Century Fox pulled out of a heavy marketing campaign for Phone Booth due to the untimely coincidence of a real-life murder spree by the Washington snipers last year and had no choice other than to delay its distribution until the media wave had died down. With various recasting problems and also some shifting around on the director's part, this film has had more than its bad share of press even before its media screening. Almost a year on, Phone Booth finally gets a global release, but is it any good? Kikizo investigates...

Colin Farrell has been tipped as the "hottest actor in Hollywood" for a long while since his supporting role in Minority Report. Kikizo didn't really believe the hype with the flurry of mediocre films like 'The Recruit' and 'Daredevil' passing by, until now...

Farrell finally delivers a highly believable and gripping lead performance of a shark-like PR guru who plays into the hands of a disturbed sniper. And do you know what? This satirical thriller blows other films of a similar ilk like Changing Lanes and The Recruit completely out of the waters.

Farrell plays Stu Shepard; a fast-talking, bulls***ing, self-styling and wife-cheating publicist. He has the industry at his feet (and an eager assistant in tow) thanks to his refined ability to wheel and deal covers and front pages for his clients - whatever levers his profile and gives him power. PRs eh? What are they like? After speaking to his mistress, Pamela (played by Katie Holmes) in a phone call, Stu picks up a call to an anonymous sniper who blackmails him to confess his lies or die if he hangs up.

Pretty much all of the story takes place within the unnatural confinements of the phone booth. The plot unfolds when the severity of Stu's decisions spiral and a pimp outside the booth is shot. More and more police, crowds and news crews are drawn to incidents surrounding the crime scene as Stu holds onto his deal with the caller. Following closely to the thriller genre, the stakes and bluffs are raised at each end when Stu's wife and lover appear in the crowds and we're left guessing whether they will be the next victims?

Without giving too much away, Farrell's portrayal of Stu as a soulless anti-hero PR suit is superbly convincing... As is the threatening monotones of sniper at the other end of the line. There's a lot of poking fun at the aesthetics of publicity as seen in major parallels with Stu's conflict with the prospect of turning his identity inside out when he himself becomes the flavour of the day on the news. The tension between the two leads are fantastic and a lot of the movie I found myself grimacing at the thought that the sniper was ready to take Stu's legs out.

More surprisingly, there's a lot of dark humour in the film thanks to the caller's sick requests when the different individuals approach the phone booth. Much of which was at its peak during police negotiations with Forest Whitaker's Captain Ramey. This proved evidently vital to the film's enjoyment and the developing audience's empathy towards seeing Stu through. With Joel Schumacher finally finding his form again in the directorial hot seat, this is a winning film not to be reckoned with.

In fact, it's all of 80 mins worth of film making mastery thanks to Larry Cohen's tightly bolted dialogue combined Schumacher's excellent management of dotted split screen links, tense close ups and panic-driven point of views around the street that makes this film as tensely entertaining as it is. Despite its low production costs, this is as nerve-racking as his critically acclaimed film, Falling Down .

One area that fails this film are the motivations of the characters and the lack of pay-off given to the audiences at the end of the film. The ending, unfortunately, is predictable but I couldn't help but feel short-changed by investing my desire for the protagonist to prevail and the sniper to be caught. There's just too much left unexplained to the characters for a narrative that is dictated by its linearity from start to the final climax...

Transistor Sister
Film Critic, Kikizo Movies