Review of Phone Booth (2003) by Sean G — 14 Mar 2010

"Stu, if you hang up, I will kill you." - The Caller.

Joel Schumacher strikes back with an intense thriller that captures humanity's current technological zeitgeist.

Arrogant publicist Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell) is a man who thinks he can get away with anything he desires in life. His chain of thought starts to change rather quickly when he decides to pick up a phone in one of the last phone booths in New York City. The Caller (Kiefer Sutherland) on the other end of the line tells Stu to not leave the phone booth no matter what. Stu finally starts to take the Caller seriously when he is informed by him that he can see every move Stu makes, and decides to point a laser at him for further proof. The laser is mounted on a rifle, and the sound of it cocking over the phone only sends a shiver down Stu's spine. Things start to become disturbing once a man trying to take Stu out of the phone booth is shot by the Caller. Within moments, the New York City Police arrive to what becomes a standoff situation between Stu and the NYPD, headed by Captain Ed Ramey (Forest Whitaker). The NYPD believe that Stu has a gun on him, and Stu is now in a nightmarish situation that could mean the death of him within the phone booth.

Despite being a box office success, Batman & Robin was a film that plagued Joel Schumacher's career for a number of years. With Phone Booth, Joel Schumacher has directed a discipline film with a basic story that garnered in over $97 million worldwide on a budget of $10 million, and won the respect of most critics.

Colin Farrell leads the cast of Phone Booth, and delivers a good performance in this tense thriller. Farrell is in his youthful prime and he manages to turn an unlikable asshole into a hero the viewer cares for. Known as the Stranger, Sniper, and Caller, Kiefer Sutherland's character is seen only in the last few minutes of the film but his voice is heard throughout the story. I don't know about you, but whenever I only hear Sutherland's voice and don't see him, it feels like I am watching Ford Motors commercial. But Sutherland's voice fits perfectly for this film because it can creep people out when he is a villain. Forest Whitaker delivers yet another good performance, this time as a no-nonsense NYPD cop who doesn't let people run on him and he knows how to do his job. Ed Ramey lets Shepard hit him with a barrage of insults as ordered to do so by the Caller, but Ramey eventually starts to realize that someone is on the other line of Shepard's phone and he wants to get to the bottom of it before more people get hurt.

Phone Booth does have its weak points, particularly with the lesser roles in the film. The prostitutes seen at the beginning of the film are certainly over the top caricatures, and Shepard's love interests with his wife Kelly Shepard (Radha Mitchell) and Pamela McFadden (Katie Holmes) is never developed to the extent it should be. What also gets irritating is the repetitive split screen shots that throw the film out of whack.

The Bottom Line:

This morality thriller has some good action elements and is certainly intense enough to make you throw away any assumptions you may have of Joel Schumacher due to Batman & Robin. Consider watching Phone Booth if you are a fan of the genre or main cast.

A ringing phone has to be answered.