Review of The Night Listener (2006) by Mark S — 09 Oct 2011

Armistead Maupinâ(TM)s mystery novel âThe Night Listenerâ? is a subtle, beautiful and psychologically plausible story of loss, loneliness and growing old. What drives the plot of the book is a mystery that you donâ(TM)t want to be solved, even though you pretty much know the answers already. This movie adaptation of the book uses the novel only for its first act. After that the story continues onwards, offering very clear answers and making direct statements. The loss of mystery might bother many, but viewed individually, the film works on its own well, communicating all the most important themes of the novel.

Robin Williams is surprisingly good at breathing life into main character Gabriel Noone, whoâ(TM)s a sort of alter ego of Maupinâ(TM)s. When you add into that performance the solid work Toni Collette does and the slightly campy but ultimately effecting direction the result equals the impact of the original book. It achieves this through very different means, but still.