Phone Booth

Release Date: April 4, 2003
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Director: Joel Schumacher
Screenwriter: Larry Cohen
Starring: Colin Farrell, Forest Whitaker, Kiefer Sutherland, Katie Holmes, Radha Mitchell, Richard T. Jones, Maile Flanagan
Genre: Drama, Thriller
MPAA Rating: R (for pervasive language and some violence)
Official Website: PhoneBoothmovie.com

Plot Summary: A phone call can change your life, but for one man it can also end it. Set entirely within and around the confines of a New York City phone booth, "Phone Booth" follows a slick media consultant (Farrell) who is trapped after being told by a caller - a serial killer with a sniper rifle - that he'll be shot dead if he hangs up.

Reviewed by Peter Veugelaers Ó 2003
- Who said they don't make 'em like they used to?

If there was anticipation about pulling this from theatres in 2002 as the subject matter was not conducive to post-Sep. 11 sensitivities then there are sensitive moments in "Phone Booth" that are conducive to evaluating the aftermath of terrorism in a more recuperated period of American and worldwide reaction to it.

There are scenes in this psychological thriller set in New York City that reminded me that this film does not only echo moral and spiritual significance but that the surrounding context of these scenes invigorates greater social meaning.

While a free wheeling entertainment publicist (Farrell) is in a phone booth he is taunted by a caller (Sutherland) who is simultaneously holding him hostage under the threat of gunfire, and who snipes from a top floor in an apartment on the other side of the street. Amidst the engrossing nature of the drama in a particular scene it hits home the response many Americans had to Sep. 11: when terror arrived, people apparently got closer to God, or sought out some form of spiritual awakening to see them through this trauma.

In the first scenes, Stu Shepard (Farrell) was carefree while on his cell phone to a number of clients; business as usual, including a potential affair with an actress (Holmes) whom he calls while on a rapid walk down a stretch of New York pavement. The phone booth is his undoing, and the busyness of his day unfolds against the demands of the external enemy, the sniper, who symbolises a kind of conscience.

Kiefer Sutherland as the sniper, sounding menacing in a terrorizing tone of voice, prompts his victim’s conscience about repenting from his misdemeanours and, with the added presence of a sniper’s weapon, questions his fearing of God and his status before the fury that is only the Almighty’s, somehow contradicted by the sniper’s own retributive actions.

To understate the case, the victim is having something of a wake-up call, albeit rather melodramatically and viciously. Once the conscience is pricked about the need to face-up to responsibilities, and when circumstances allow people to re-evaluate life, reality becomes more complex. The only tone of grace and forgiveness is seen in the female characters, which includes the victim’s distraught wife.

The story itself is improbable, but the themes strongly suggest confession and transparency, explicitly handled and underscored by the opening and conclusion. These ideas are somewhat underused in mainstream cinema so it is refreshing to see them here, and they make for intriguing viewing. The discourse is dished out in vivid and quickly edited manner, including use of hand-held camera for effect, and so the aesthetic style and engrossing drama compensates for the limited scope of the setting.

Farrell is better here than anything he has been in all year. He translates from cock-eyed sure businessman to vulnerable and broken human compellingly, from a confident trickster to a man who cries like child when the truth is required. Yet, his integrity is always in question. And here is the point: if Farrell survives the ordeal how then will he live? It is one thing to confess under extreme pressure, which needs compliance, but another to genuinely mean it when in the natural milieu. "Phone Booth" is a strikingly healthy treatment of pertinent subject matter, despite contrivances.