Review of Phone Booth (2003) by John M — 07 Feb 2010

Stylization in a good way. It's a simple enough premise: An unsuspecting arrogant publicist (Colin Farrell) picks up a ringing telephone in a phone booth in New York. Little does he know that the phone call is from a man hidden in a surrounding building who has a sniper rifle aimed at his head.

Now this feels like a good Tony Scott movie, which should come as no surprise, because it is directed by Joel Schumacher; they both have similar styles in direction, only in terms of quality movies, Tony Scott is batting about .

800, while Schumacher is closer to .400. The thing about Phone Booth is that it is one big gimmick, but it is a gimmick that works. All these phone calls/split screens make it so there's always a lot going on onscreen, but your focus is always where it needs to be, if that makes any sense.

It's also almost completely done in real-time, so it's like you're just getting an intense eighty minutes of somebody's day. Colin Farrell is probably the best possible casting choice; he can definitely play an asshole, but he has the chops to make a full character arc.

All these things I've talked about are all well and good, but what elevates this from a decent movie to a really good movie is the man on the other side of the line, who is on screen for less than three minutes, Kiefer Sutherland.

His voice as the sniper is so calm, almost therapeutic, and so much that of a crazy person, it's spellbinding. At 81 minutes, there is no reason why you shouldn't check this out.