Rating- * * * * (4/5)
Read my review in The Crimson White
Talk about blowing up! Colin Farrell’s career is skyrocketing so fast he’s gonna need FAA clearance soon. With the opening of this latest film from director Joel Schumacher, the man who discovered our young star, Colin Farrell has appeared in three number one movies (The Recruit and Daredevil are the other two) before May, an almost unthinkable accomplishment. So how did this guy get so big so fast? It is the one simple quality that differentiates stars from Hollywood legends: good taste in screenplays. Farrell has risen so quickly to stardom not because of the sheer amount of movie he has acted in but because the quality of movies he has acted in. As a young actor with leading man looks, Farrell was undoubtedly offered some roles that would have paid a lot more or gotten him more attention, but Farrell chose to take the high road and choose only projects that would allow him to engage in a character or work with good material. Unlike someone like, say, Will Smith, Colin Farrell has gained fame out of admiration for his work on the screen rather than charisma and hype in the press. Now for the movie in question; before we dive in, allow me to give you a little background on this movie. The idea for this film was conceived back in the 1970s, simpler times but certainly not so far removed from today’s world. The movie was set to be released last fall but since it contains a sniper and had its release date squarely in the middle of the Beltway Sniper crisis, Fox was forced to push the film’s release date to mid-April. Along the way, the leading man had two other big releases and started dating Britney Spears pushing what was once a small, art house release into a rather large-scale star vehicle for Colin Farrell. And what a vehicle…if ever there were a film built to showcase one actor’s talent, it was Phone Booth. The film opens in Times Square with Farrell as Stu, a hotshot talent agent who dupes everyone he needs to in order to get what he wants. After making some hard nose business deals, Stu stops at a nearby phone booth (coincidentally, the last phone booth in New York) that he visits every day to call his girlfriend. Why use a phone booth? So that his wife won’t see the calls on his cell phone bill. So, Stu’s not perfect but compared to what we usually see in movies and in the real world for that matter, he doesn’t really seem like all that awful of a human being. Soon after he hangs up with his girlfriend, the phone in the booth rings. Now who’s gonna let a payphone just ring and not pick it up? It turns out Stu should’ve let this one go because on the other end is a sniper, voiced by Keifer Sutherland, with his rifle aimed right at the phone booth. It’s not clear what this sniper is motivated by but he appears to be hell bent on making Stu confess his sins and repent. Since Stu cannot leave the booth, he is at the complete mercy of the sniper who makes it appear that Stu is armed, causing a police standoff. For the rest of the movie, which runs just under an hour and a half (very short by movie standards), the sniper plays mind games with Stu as he deals with his wife (Radha Mitchell) and girlfriend (the lovely Katie Holmes) both showing up at the standoff. The film also follows the hostage negotiator, played very intelligently by Forest Whitaker, as he tries to discover what is really going on in the phone booth. The fact that the film is all set in one place gives it a sort of claustrophobic feel to it and the filmmakers were wise to keep it short. As confining as it is to have an entire film on one set, the film is never less than suspenseful, taught and incredibly involving. We care about the characters and we are never at all sure what is about to happen next. The symbolism of the sniper as God forcing Stu to make a choice for morality is a bit blatant and obvious but still rather daring and the fact that a major studio film would actually promote morals and condemn adultery and deceit is pretty rare. All in all, Phone Booth is a very tidy, taught morality play that while simple in its ideas is brilliant in the way it presents them. It is a film that requires remarkable acting from a few key players and it gets all it needs and more from the emotionally powerful Colin Farrell, a thoughtful and intelligent Forest Whitaker, and an effortlessly cool and dark Keifer Sutherland. I recommend Phone Booth for its high powered suspense, its incredibly talented cast, and its smart, thoughtful story in an age where we just might need a reminder of what the right thing to do is.