The Rhino's Review of "Phone Booth" -- Rhinotainment

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Date Posted: 20:03:37 04/06/03 Sun
Author: The Rhino
Subject: The Rhino's Review of "Phone Booth"

Colin Farrell is America's current "It" boy. He is the next big thing. The next leading man. There are a number of "It" boys that end up coming out ahead and actually go somewhere in their careers. Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Russell Crowe come to mind. Then there's Skeet Ulrich. Remember him? No? Seriously? For every Affleck, there's an Ulrich. Guys that come out of the corner swinging. They either score a knockout, or they get knocked out. That being the case, I was curious as to what Colin Farrell had to offer.

The only film that I have remembered Farrell in recently is "Minority Report." He played a great asshole, but then again, I saw him on Letterman the other night and he came off as a smug asshole anyway. Is he just playing himself? Farrell has had a slew of films come out recently such as "Hart's War", "Daredevil" and "The Recruit", none of which he was actually the focal point of. One could argue that point with "The Recruit" but I have been told that Al Pacino does enough overacting for both of them, so who knows? "Phone Booth" would be his first attempt at going legit.

"Phone Booth" was scheduled to come out around the same time two snipers began taking out innocent people in the Washington D.C. area. It was then postponed due to it's eerily similar plot. I recall seeing trailers for this film LAST SUMMER. When you see trailers and then you hear nothing for a long time, that's usually a bad sign. That normally means that there were reshoots due to poor test audience scores, marketing problems, the lead actor is in rehab and the timing is poor...there's a number of things that can happen. That's usually the death knell for a film. But, finally, "Phone Booth" has seen it's release.

This film stars Farrell as Stu Shepard, a coniving up-and-coming entertainment publicist. Stu is the type of guy to lie, cheat and steal to get his way. In the opening scene of the film, you see Stu and his intern walking the streets of New York City, cell phones ablazing, working out this deal and that deal, lying to two different magazines in order to get them to compete to put one of his stars on their magazine cover, getting this premier going at this hot nightspot, sending bad news about his opposition to newspapers in hopes of making better news for his own clients...he's a bastard. His intern is hanging on his every word and move in hopes to be just like him. On top of that, he is attempting to have an affair with a young starlet, Pam (Katie Holmes), with big leading lady aspiriations. As you can tell, Stu is a real class act.

Every day, Stu stops at the last phone booth in the city (due to be torn down and turned into a kiosk), takes off his wedding ring, and calls Pam to see what kind of trouble they can get into. If he calls her on the pay phone, his wife can't trace Pam through his cell phone bill. Up to this point, they have never had sex, but they have kissed on numerous occasions. Stu loves his wife, but he just wonders what lies under the clothes of young Pam. After talking to Pam and getting nowhere, they discontinue their discussion.

Seconds after hanging up, the phone rings. Stu answers and on the other end, he hears a voice (the ever-so-creepy Keifer Sutherland) of a man who knows more about Stu than anyone else in the world. He knows his name, his address, his wife's name and her place of business, he even knows about Pam. On top of that, he is watching Stu in the phone booth through the scope of his high powered assault rifle. The rifle is ready to pop. Stu doesn't believe him, so to demonstrate, the caller picks off a toy robot from a neighboring kiosk. With a silencer on the end of his gun, no one sees or hears a thing...but the kiosk owner is pissed. Stu is instructed not to leave the phone booth or he will be shot. A laser bead is drawn on Stu's chest to remind him.

The tension is thick and it continues to build through a number of mishaps. A loud and obnoxious prostitute will not leave Stu alone. She wants that phone booth to make a call, but obviously he can't leave. He fends her off as best he can. Then she brings more working girls over to try to edge him out. He continues to fend them off until finally they bring their pimp over to strongarm Stu out of the booth. When the pimp gets Stu in a headlock and is trying to force him out of the booth, the caller asks Stu if he needs some help. When Stu agrees, the caller puts a bullet between the pimp's shoulder blades. The hookers all agree that Stu did it. Here comes the police.

Suddenly, Stu is the center of attention. Police all around, snipers on top of buildings, televisions stations come in droves. Stu is a big star. As the old saying goes, bad press is still press.

The caller reveals that he has done this before. He has killed the leader of a porn ring and a stock market guru who was cheating people out of their money. It seems the caller is on a quest to take out those who he finds deplorable. It's a moral mission. Stu is next. But how did he get all his information about Stu? How does he know? What does Stu have to do to stay alive?

This film is as tense as a tightrope. The director (Joel Schumacher) builds the tension like a house of cards, one card at a time. It's maddening! For instance, in the scene with the prostitutes, you have the caller threatening Stu's life, his family, and you have the hookers screaming at Stu to get out of the phone booth all at the same time. Processing all of this, and then adding the violent pimp to the equation begins to make you wonder who will end up killing Stu first. This tension carries the film all the way up to the surprising climax. It's excellent.

I had a ball watching this film. It's funny and smart, especially once Sutherland comes on the other line. I went into this film wondering how exciting watching someone negotiate their life over the phone for the majority of the film could be. But I never got bored. This is a short film, clocking in at only 80 minutes. Normally, I would feel robbed by a film that short, but this one is the exception, because going any longer would have worn out it's welcome. It's perfectly paced.

The acting. Well, I finally understand the fuss over Farrell. He was exceptional as Stu. Once the film started, I was wondering if I would like Farrell's character at all because he was such a bastard. By the end of the film, I was rooting for him. But in the same respect, I was totally digging Sutherland's character too and while it's not his responsibility to play God, he really felt justified by doing what he was doing and it came out in his voice. It was darkly admirable. It really weighed on my emotions.

This was Joel Schumacher's best work since "Falling Down" and "A Time to Kill." Schumacher is best known for being a fluff filmmaker who focuses more on making his characters and his films sexy rather than giving them substance. See "8mm" and "Batman & Robin" for details. I mean, Christ, putting nipples and a giant codpiece on the Batsuit? He's a superhero, not John Holmes! But I digress. Schumacher proved that he is capable of focusing and putting out a great film. His direction is flawless in "Phone Booth" and he picked one of the best cinematographers in the business (Matthew Libatique, "Requiem for a Dream") to shoot this film. It's stylish, with a lot of frenetic editing and picture in picture storytelling. It keeps the film jumping. Brilliant idea.

What didn't I like about the film? I didn't like Forrest Whitaker's character, Captain Ramey. This was the poorest acting that Whitaker has ever done. He was unbelievable and uninspired. I would rather have seen someone like Samuel L. Jackson or Morgan Freeman play this part. That character has to be cool and in control and I never really believed that Whitaker really felt that he was in control. We all know that Jackson and Freeman can be cool and I think this part would have fit them to a tee.

But that's really the only thing about the film that I didn't like. It was fun, tense, stylish, and just an overall great time at the theater. I can't ask for anything more. Go see this film!!!

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