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From Monsters and Critics.com Movies Reviews Close but no cigar as a great international corporate mystery thriller slows to a crawl in a drawn out study of death. Frank Langella and Elliott Gould should have been used better The caller starts off as a great international corporate mystery thriller but fails to sustain the suspense in a terribly drawn out second half. Frank Langella (“Diary of a Mad Housewife”) starts the film off with a bang as the cool-as-ice corporate exec Jimmy Stevens who is trusted to call the shots down to the last grisly detail. He breaks early in the film and the remaining three-quarters of the footage is his acceptance of his fate. It remains to be seen if the average audience can hold on to the ephemeral thinness of his character’s message. As part of Steven’s plan for what he expects will be his last days on earth he hires private eye Frank Turlotte (Elliott Gould—“Mash,” “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice”) to trail him. He does through a neat little bit of film-noir shuffle that gets film off to a nice start and sets honest private eye Gould up for a fall. Unfortunately, the ending doesn’t deliver the final message with the impact we expect. The reasons for boss Stevens’ actions lie in his past. The film uses flashbacks to murderous attacks during WWII to lay bare the scars of the executive’s past. But the connection between the little boy in the flashbacks and the executive’s heartless existence are not explained adequately. By the end of the film the flashbacks get repetitive and irritating. One can hear the audience thinking “Just say it. Please!” New director Richard Ledes co-wrote the script with new writer Alain Didier Weill and this is not a bad breakthrough attempt. But in the end they both shoulder part of the blame for the lackluster impact of the film. The lack of character development for the corporate thugs who are Steven’s jury is acceptable, since the story is about Stevens. But there is not enough dynamic in Langella’s lines to show us what he is thinking. In the end, we know so little of his past that it is hard for us to accept the tragedy of his misbegotten life. The cinematography is a mixture of night time film noir and day time confessionals by Langella. With the exception of one great panning rooftop shot, there is little of visual interest in the film other than very recognizable footage of New York. As the planned execution spot, Red Hook, Brooklyn is mentioned several times. As the area is seeing up-scale development this is a little hard to understand. Surely there could have been a more appropriate place to rub somebody out. The New Jersey piers? Private eye Gould is as comfortable in his own skin as a bird in its feathers. In fact, birds are what detective Turlotte has turned to, presumably after spending decades on the local police force and seeing more than any person wants to see. But his character remains one-dimensional as he spies on birds, lives alone and yet hasn’t learned how to pick up a coffee pot. As the detective photographs the birds, in their freedom, the audience gets a foreshadowing of what it is like to shed the cares, and sins, of the world. In fact, isolation is what this film is all about. It is the film noir with the tragic shuffle of a man arranging to have a friend, or at least someone who will testify to his ultimate sacrifice. The nine year old daughter of Steven’s kept woman becomes an unlikely but workable choir to announce the parameters of his expected fate. The point is that both of the lead characters are alone and at least one of them doesn’t intend to stay that way all of his life. But it may not be possible to make a film about two men’s final reunion with as little development as these two are given. Release: Tribeca Film Festival © Copyright 2007 by monstersandcritics.com. This notice cannot be removed without permission. |