Release Date: April 4, 2003
Starring: Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland, Forest Whitaker, Radha Mitchell, Katie Holmes
Directed by: Joel Schumacher
Written by: Larry Cohen
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox Films
MPAA Rating: R (pervasive language, some violence)
It wouldn’t be difficult to convince someone that today’s population has become oversaturated with cell phones and mobile headsets, while public pay phones and phone booths are on the verge of turning into technological relics. Despite the gap, though, Phone Booth, which is directed by Joel Schumacher, combines both in an attempt -- a successful attempt -- to generate suspense and to force the audience into a moment of self-evaluation.
While the storyline is slightly farfetched and most people probably won’t be able to handle the film’s claustrophobic 80 minutes, the star, Colin Farrell, brings a lot of much-needed dramatic intensity and makes it worth the viewer’s time to stick with the film.
He plays Stu Shepard, a fast-talking New York City publicist who doesn’t take no for an answer. On one fateful day, he makes a phone call from the only phone booth left on the block and ends up getting trapped inside -- a sniper in one of the many nearby windows has him in his sights, and says he’ll shoot if Stu leaves. Soon the police, lead by Capt. Ramey (Forest Whitaker), and the media get word, and the battle of wits, wills, and luck is begun.
The series of mind games that unfolds leads Stu to the edge, while the sniper calmly running the show. The sniper himself is a fairly interesting character: While he’s definitely taking some rather extreme measures, he is motive and his philosophies are more down-to-earth than most Hollywood villains. In this case, he’s crusading against the insufferable arrogance of the moneyed upper class, a theme many audience members are sure to sympathize with -- especially when the sniper defines their sins in a more realistic context. Sexual deviants and corrupt stock brokers, for instance, aren’t exactly the pinnacle of modern society, but unlike murderers and thieves, they’re rarely in the news or in jail for their crimes.
The film’s writer, Larry Cohen, is a native of New York, and it’s clear that he knows the town and the accompanying vibe. The dialogue and the character of Stu Shepard move at an almost nonstop pace, typical of the city that never sleeps, and the film, less than an hour and a half, is similarly quick -- neither too long nor too short. (The abbreviated length may come from Cohen’s background in TV -- having penned episodes of “The Fugitive,” he knows how to write a short, concise thriller.)
Farrell works well in this up-tempo atmosphere. He deftly plays this smooth-talking New Yorker that the city is infamous for producing, proving once again that the Irish actor has what it takes to entertain his audience in a variety of roles. In the year prior to Phone Booth he’s played a World War II prisoner of war, a CIA recruit, and a comic book villain, to name a few, and his every move and rapid-fire dialogue in this film feels just as real. Here, too, he is perhaps at his most vulnerable of all the roles he’s played.
Farrell’s costars are a little flat, but probably for good reason, because this is a story about Stu and his perilous situation. To make things interesting, though, the police captain played by Forrest Whitaker, his wife Kelly (Radha Mitchell), and his mistress Pamela (Katie Holmes), are thrown in to provide for dialogue that will give the audience a break from the back-and-forth between Stu and the sniper. But while the always-solid Whitaker does well in the police captain’s role, Mitchell and Holmes are obvious script baggage as the women in Stu’s life.
This is an impressive feature for Schumacher as well considering the space provided. The director, who has struggled recently to produce a genuine hit, nevertheless got Phone Booth to work, channeling the energy of a very vibrant city into the atmosphere, characters, and themes of the film to ratchet up the suspense at every turn.
While the film may be unsettling to some due to the content -- it was originally planned for release in November 2002, shortly after the sniper serial killings in the Washington, D.C., area, but was subsequently delayed for several months -- the vast majority of audiences should find it entertaining and thought-provoking (if a little moralistic). Even those who have a tough time dealing with the claustrophobia or Schumacher’s unusual style should be taken with Farrell’s lead performance. And who knows, it might even changes the minds of those people who seem to have their cell phones are surgically attached to their heads.
-- Michael J. Eiff (eiff@email.arizona.edu)