The Movie: The Call (2013)
Studio: TriStar Pictures
Director: Brad Anderson
Starring: Halle Berry as Jordan Turner, Abigail Breslin as Casey Welson, Morris Chestnut as Officer Paul Phillips, Michael Eklund as Michael Foster, David Otunga as Officer Jake Devans and Michael Imperioli as Alan Denado
Screenwriter: Richard D’Ovidio (Thir13en Ghosts)
RottenTomatoes: 40% MetaCritic: 52/100
Snippet from My Review: (read my full review here)
A lot of critical attention targeting The Call will focus on yet another questionable decision made by Halle Berry when it comes to her post-Oscar career (an award she won 11 years ago by the way). Fair, though tiresome. Instead, The Call should be looked at as another film that actually could have been quite decent had the storytelling decisions not opened up the entire film to a series of nitpicks, the ending being the worst offender.
Starter Thoughts
My biggest problem with the film was the number of times the film unnecessarily opens itself up to scrutiny. This includes the moment Jordan drops her phone into the hole and suddenly loses reception after Casey’s TracPhone just had reception in the same spot and then suddenly after they escape the hole she is about to use it again to call the police. Speaking of which, how could this 911 operator find Casey’s broken phone in the field and the hole in the ground in the pitch black when the police couldn’t? For that matter, why didn’t the police have dogs out there with them? They were searching for a missing person right?
And as for the ultimate finale and the decision to leave the guy down there, just how exactly were they going to explain what happened? Jordan found Casey wandering in the woods? Do they not think the police will go out there to investigate and search for the kidnapper known to have murdered other people? Would they not ask Jordan what she was doing out there?
How about when Jordan finally gets out of the hole and then decides to NOT close the trap door allowing for the killer to get out. Couldn’t they just as easily have allowed the killer’s head to pop up and had Casey kick him in the head in the first place rather than go through all the attempts at made up tension?
Enough from me, share your thoughts on the film in the comments below and feel free to include spoilers.
