Review: Halle Berry in The Call

So there are probably going to be some spoilers in this review. Not specific ones, of course, but if you just want a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down on The Call, picture me like I’m trying to enjoy eating a really old apple, but I’m also hungry, and I have to go to the bathroom, and I’m giving a thumbs-kind-of-down. If you want to know specifically what’s wrong with The Call, why it manages to fail despite some really solid direction from vet Brad Anderson and a great performance from Halle Berry, read, well, on.

The Call is full of suspense, pretty much from the get-go. Anderson (The Machinist, Session 9) and Berry are too good for there not to be, and the story, which sees her playing a 911 operator on a real-time call from a kidnapped teen (Abigail Breslin) in the trunk of a serial killer’s car, is a pretty automatic set-up, anxiety-generation-wise.

 

The whole thing’s acted and shot well enough, in fact, that it manages to do that magic thriller thing, where you’re able, because the thing moves well enough and is performed well enough and scored well enough, that you kind of simultaneously note and then happily ignore the series of coincidences and implausibilities that fuel the action.

There’s a lot of cell-phone hiding, a lot of just-miss timing, a lot of “why is he smart enough to do this but not that” kind of plot… thin spots, if not holes. But it’s fine. The Call is tense and suspenseful, and surprisingly good. But. But. While thrillers of even the disposable, enjoyable type are allowed to contain implausibilities of the plot type (and often, frankly, rely on them), character implausibilities are still huge-time verboten. When characters stop behaving the way they have all film and do something that may seem cool, or wicked, or totally awesome (but is clearly not what, say, a 911 operator having tracked down a villain would do), the movie stops like a shot clock. The gears fall out.

 

That’s what happens to The Call. Anderson, Berry and Breslin manage to put together a thoroughly competent, mildly enjoyable thriller that becomes hilariously, pointlessly stupid in its last moments. This is a trend, now, as last month’s Safe Haven did almost the exact same thing. It’s pointless, depressing. It’s like building a perfectly functional house for your family and then taking a huge shit in it. No good can come from it. The ending of The Call isn’t even a failed attempt at something interesting, as it’s not even discernable what they were even trying to do.

It’s bad.

No one that sees this film is going to like the ending. No one that likes thrillers is going to like the ending. Because it’s not an ending, it’s a character implausibility so massive and sudden that it’s basically a room full of screenwriters and producers screaming “surprise! this isn’t a story, it’s all fake”. Which is a shame, because they managed to convince me otherwise for the first two and a half acts.