The Call/Review

"The Call" is an effectively creepy suspense thriller about a 911 operator and a young girl in peril by a sadistic kidnapper. The 911 operator named (Jordan Turner) played by Halle Berry who struggles with her own psychological problems after weighing in on and fumbling a earlier distress call some years before by a victim who is kidnapped and murdered by the same perpetrator who she now has a taunting dialog with and her struggle to handle the situation and save the life of the victim (Casey Welson) played by Abigail Breslin. The scene is set in a Los Angles 911 dispatch center called the Hive. Buzzing with the thrills of incoming calls and the sound of reassuring voices, the hive is where 911 operators ask what is your emergency? This question also becomes the opening line in this suspense thriller, drama, melodrama and tragic horror story.  Jordan at this time is now a teacher at the dispatch center and jumps back in when an inexperience dispatcher begins to fumble a distress call and sets off the roller coaster ride with Jordan trying to calm the victim and bring her down from convulsive hysteria while she is locked in the trunk of the psycho's car moving down a Los Angles freeway. Here the director Brad Anderson uses old fashion film making techniques like crosscutting to build tension tightly shooting his scenes close-up inside the trunk of the car highlighting the terror of the girl in her ordeal. "The Call" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult) There is Bloody violence and crude language.

Directed by Brad Anderson; written by Richard D’Ovidio, based on a story by Mr. D’Ovidio, Nicole D’Ovidio and Jon Bokenkamp; director of photography, Thomas Yatsko; edited by Avi Youabian; music by John Debney; production design by Franco G. Carbone; costumes by Magali Guidasci; produced by Jeff Graup, Michael J. Luisi, Michael A. Helfant, Robert L. Stein and Bradley Gallo; released by TriStar Pictures and Stage 6 Films. 1 hour 35 minutes

WITH: Halle Berry (Jordan Turner), Abigail Breslin (Casey Welson), Morris Chestnut (Officer Paul Phillips), Michael Eklund (Michael Foster), David Otunga (Officer Jake Devans), Roma Maffia (Maddy), José Zúñiga (Marco) and Michael Imperioli (Alan Denado).

Butch Leake(CORNER TALK REPORT)