Review of The Night Listener (2006) by Kenny B — 14 Jul 2008

The Night Listener tells the story of a New York city radio host who tells stories on the air. When he gets a phone call from one of his biggest fans, who wrote a novel as a child, he begins to talk to the young man regularly. When the identity of the boy and whether or not he even exsists becomes a question Gabriels life gets turned into a mess.

Robin Williams was splendid. He shows true range. He found his inner actor and his inner storyteller, and he showed it in this film. Robin was not as good as he probably could have been, but still an average performance to go under his credit.

Toni Collette played the Strange played woman known as Donna througout the film. She did a afairly good job, playing the adoptive mother of the so called boy named Pete. Collette was freaky to say the least. She began to flip out when Gabriel came close to the truth. She wanted sympathy, but she didnt want someone to get to close to the story itself and begin to unravel the truth. The portrayal shockingly resembles what some people may know as a compulsive lier, someone digs themself a deep whole but continues to pack on the lies even after they have been discovered.

Both Characters had there difficulties. Gabriel was struggling to make his relationship work. Donna was just trying to make people like her. Both characters in a way could relate to one another because on some level they were both looking for some kind of sympathy. Gabriel because his relationship failed and Donna because her adoptive son was going through a rought time.

The only problem with the film, is that it plays out in exactly the way people think it is going to. There may be a few dark scenes along the way, but you can definiltey see the ending coming from a mile away. It wasnt anything original, it featured little dvelopment and the story progressed way to fast and almost in a manner that could get to be confusing.

If you like Williams or Collette then you will like this one. If you are looking for a good thriller then keep on going, because a thriller this is not. It gets you bored about hal way through and it isnt even 2 hours long, its not even an hour and a half. The only good thing is that the characters do have real like difficulties and you can begin to feel sorry for them. Other than that, just a film to watch on rainy day.