Review of The Call (2013) by Moviemaniac83 — 21 Apr 2015

Labeling The Call as "relentlessly dumb" would be an overestimation of its intelligence. This is as brain-dead as a movie can be and it assumes the audience will have the I.Q. of a rutabaga. I suspected I might be in trouble when the opening credits proudly proclaim that The Call is a "WWE Production." Uh-oh. Granted, I wasn't expecting a high-caliber art film (although, once upon a time, Brad Anderson was an indie director - The Machinist, anyone?) but the WWE isn't exactly known for gripping storylines and well-developed characters. The pedigree runs true.

Things don't start out too badly. In fact, they begin with a whiff of verisimilitude. I don't know what a 911 call center looks like but I can believe it's something similar to what's shown in The Call. We're introduced to operator Jordan Turner (Halle Berry), who appears to be one of the best at what she does. Things take a turn for the worse for Jordan, however, when a caller is kidnapped as a result of a mistake Jordan makes. After the initial call is disconnected while the victim is hiding from her stalker, Jordan foolishly hits the "dial back" button and the ringing of the phone alerts the intruder to the girl's location. After this incident, Jordan takes herself off the active roster and becomes a 911 instructor - until she's pressed back into emergency duty.

The Call goes off the rails as it approaches the climax. Once the call with Casey is terminated at a critical juncture, Jordan decides to take matters into her own hands. So, distrusting the police department's ability to get the job done, she goes on a one-woman hunt for the missing girl and, incredibly, finds her! Yes, she's a regular Ms. Sherlock Holmes. Then, upon discovering the psycho's lair, does she call for backup? No - she don't need no stinkin' backup! (The screenplay's lame attempt to provide logic for this decision is a laughably absurd.) Horror movie scream queens everywhere would welcome Jordan into their ranks. She commits all the classic idiot-blunders of those characters including the biggest one of all: turning her back on a supposed "downed" killer. Now, we all know that these guys always get up. Doesn't she watch Jason Michael Krueger movies?

I am willing to credit The Call for one thing. In the sea of mediocre movies represented by the first quarter of the year, this successfully calls attention to itself by being just plain bad.