Review: Phone Booth

Joel Schumacher's high-concept thriller is a prime example of what can go wrong when a promising idea is poorly executed. With such a boisterous conceit as this film has (it takes place largely within a New York City phone booth), it's a shame that a filmmaker of more depth and finer craftsmanship couldn't have tackled it. Colin Farrell, he of "It Boy" fame, hams it up as a publicist who's been aching to have an affair with a young client. He regularly calls her from a phone booth, so as to avoid her number showing up on his cell phone bill (never mind the fact that it's a work phone and his wife would probably never even see the bill).Then the phone rings back one day after his call, and when he picks it up he finds out he's being watched. He's told that if he leaves the booth, he will be killed. He and the mysterious caller (voiced drably by Kiefer Sutherland) engange in a battle of wits, bantering back and forth. The caller kills a pimp and Farrell gets the murder pinned on him.

It's all very busy and, despite the narrative incongruity, very predictable. Schumacher has yet to make a film that makes a lasting impression on me. Phone Booth is sloppy, and without the slightest bit of tension. Schumacher doesn't seem to know exactly how he wants to stage his film. He would have been better to cut out all of the murder aspects of the plot and remain on the battle of wills. Instead, he muddies up the screen with too many characters that have too little to do. Farrell is an electric performer at times, but here he throws in a bit too much sizzle early on. Later on, when he's forced to become haunted and affected, it's hard to accept.

I can imagine what someone like Hitchcock or De Palma might have done with Phone Booth. At the very least, they would have created a film with style. Schumacher seems content to resign himself to a film with a lot of bark, but no bite.

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