The Call

★★

Dir. Brad Anderson

(2013)

Brad Anderson returns with this high concept thriller which is in constant danger of completely buckling under its own far-fetched plot, obvious dialogue and turned up to 11 performances. The director, who hit the big time with The Machinist and Christian Bale's painfully skinny body, disregards the taught, slow and smart horrors he's capable of delivering and buckles down for a slightly more by the book thriller. Though The Call isn't much to look at it, and it's low on real chills, it does well enough with its high concept trappings and constantly battering score.

Halle Berry gives a glassy-eyed and fairly competent performance as Jordan Turner, a 911 call operator haunted by a killer she couldn't stop. Forced to take one more call in the hope of saving a young kidnapped girl, played by a constantly crying Abigail Breslin, she must go above and beyond the call of duty to do so. As painfully Clichéd as the story obviously is, Anderson actually does pretty well with Richard D'Ovidio's script and wrings much tension out of the films first hour-long phone call set piece.

When things start to get a little more intense for our victim and her crazed abductor things obviously need to progress beyond the walls of a the call center, sadly this where things go bad for The Call. As soon as Berry hangs up the whole thing fails amazingly. Falling into painfully obvious traps we've all seen before poor old Jordan has no choice but take the law into her own hands as most of the cops chasing down Breslin seem completely inept; It's the two women here who'll serve up their own justice in a terribly misjudged finale which will sink the whole film for you if you decide to take it all too seriously.