Overall Rating
 Awesome: 37.43%
Worth A Look: 41.52%
Average: 3.51%
Pretty Bad: 10.53%
Total Crap: 7.02%
8 reviews, 123 user ratings
|
|
| Phone Booth |
by Chris Parry
"My name is Colin Farrell. And this is the longest day of my life."
|
If you look back over cinema history, it's the simplest movie premises that inevitably have an audience saying, "I can't wait for that flick to come out." Huge shark terrorizes beach; four crazy losers fight off a ghost outbreak in New York City; rebels fight back against an intergalactic empire of bad guys; unassuming archeologist battles nazis for treasure. See what I'm talking about? Add to that 'guy answers phone in phone booth and is told if he moves he'll be shot by a sniper' - this is one of those premises that has audiences chomping at the bit to buy a ticket. But will they be disappointed when they finally get in the door?Not a chance. Produced with a tiny budget, written by 70's B-meister Larry Cohen and shot in about ten days, Phone Booth is the kind of film that would have given a rookie director immense indie cred. Like Schumacher's earlier low budget work, Tigerland, this is a film that manages to keep you on the edge of your seat while following an intelligent script and steering well clear of schlocky Batman and Robin territory.
Of course, it doesn't hurt that both films feature superstar in the making Collin Farrell prominently.
Farrell is Stu, a publicist trying to con his way up in the world. He's got a great looking wife (a woefully under-used Radha Mitchell), a good looking mistress (a doe-eyed and similarly under-scripted Katie Holmes) and the latest in a long line of unpaid interns doing his dirty work. Every day he goes to a phone booth and makes a call to his secret lover, but on this day that call is followed by another. As Stu is leaving the booth, the phone rings. He answers it, only to be told by 24's Jack Bauer (okay, it's Kiefer Sutherland, but when you watch 24 regularly, it's Jack Bauer) that if he hangs up, he will be shot dead. Tension ensues.
Phone Booth is Joel Schumacher's way of saying "you know what? I'm not an asshole. I'm not always wasteful. I've made some crap in my time, but it's not all I can make - move on." And fair enough too, the guy knows how to put a good film together and Phone Booth is proof of that.
Which is not to say that this is going to be an Oscar-winner. Far from it, in fact. Some of the choices made in the film are bogus, the ending is a bit of an eye-roller, Sutherland's voice sounds like it's all in Farrell's head, not on the telephone, and at times everything hinges on nothing more than Farrell's ability to keep spit-spraying into the phone in a convincing enough fashion. Of course, there aren't a lot of action sequence possibilities you can call on when your entire flick is located in a phone booth, so credit Schumacher for having used (and discovered, truth be told) an actor with the undeniable talent needed to pull this off.
Schumacher has admitted that he originally wanted Jim Carrey for the role, but Carrey pulled out because he didn't think he had it in him to carry this kind of flick. And he was right - not that Carrey stinks as an actor, but that it would take someone that can go three levels beyond 'great' to carry this entire film on the back of their ability to act in a 3' by 3' space. Very few could have managed this the way Farrell does, and very few would have even taken the chance at being the soul blame for the movie's potential failure.
Credit where it's due - Farrell is incredible. This drunken Irish playboy is the kind of guy that Hollywood has been finding in Australia for the last twenty years; the Mel Gibson, the Russell Crowe, the fearless tough guy who can pull off the emotive stuff if need be, then go out later that night and get in a bar brawl. Farrell may have a limited shelf-life (when you're a bad boy AND successful, the hacks line up in wait to announce your demise), but for now he's the kind of actor that can fit any role, draw any sized audience, keep the guys enthralled and the girls drooling, and all without a hint of affectation. In Phone Booth, he's not going to be doing any sector of his reputation any disservice at all, and in fact he's probably just bumped his salary up by more than the entire budget of this film.
Co-star Forest Whitaker, as the police officer trying to figure out why Farrell won't leave the phone booth, doesn't fare as well. There is a certain suspension of disbelief required throughout the film because the cops are portrayed as being dumber than a box of Texans. But if you can ignore the cliched silliness that comes from Whitaker's character and those around him, you're past the biggest hurdle to having a good time with this film.Phone Booth is not rocket science. In fact, it's a popcorn movie, but it's a popcorn movie of rare quality. This is a movie that anyone can enjoy, from arthouse film freak to fratboy bonehead to anyone in between. That it cost so little, was made so quickly and will appeal to so many makes it a lesson Hollywood could do with learning.
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=7220&reviewer=1
originally posted: 04/03/03 07:15:53
![[printer]](/images/icon/printer.gif) printer-friendly format
|
OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2003 SXSW Film Festival. For more in the 2003 South By Southwest Film Festival series, click here.
|
 |
USA
04-Apr-2003 (R)
DVD: 01-Feb-2005
UK
N/A
Australia
22-May-2003
|
|
Articles 
subscribe to this feed![[AllPosters.com]](/images/icon/ap.gif){kind=icon}
