 |
| DIRECTED BY |
| Joel Schumacher |
| STARRING |
| Colin Farrell |
| Kiefer Sutherland |
| Forest Whitaker |
| Katie Holmes |
| Radha Mitchell |
 |
Recalling his 1993 effort ‘Falling Down,’ Joel Schumacher has developed something of a habit of making films about unstable men who’ve become disgusted with the society that they live in. Unlike in ‘Falling Down,’ however, the societal rebel in ‘Phone Booth’ isn’t looked upon sympathetically. In this sense, Schumacher has recycled one of his previous storylines but shifted the perspectives; so, which one works better, you ask? Answer: ‘Phone Booth.’
Once you get through watching the film’s opening sequence – which plays like the telecommunications commercial that AT&T didn’t want you to see, you’ll experience a cinematic roller-coaster ride – it’s certainly not devoid of its bumpy parts, but it’s fun (and not completely brainless, either.)
Schumacher wisely swallowed his desire to recklessly swerve about the road of filmmaking in order to create a myriad of convoluted situations; instead, he channeled this instinct into creating a succinct film that hurries along, which is the quality that ‘Falling Down’ lacked but dearly needed.
The pace of ‘Phone Booth’ is its best quality, but that doesn’t make it a great film. It tends to lean into the direction of glorifying an insane killer whose actual purpose is to (obtensibly) facilitate our society because it’s been swept up within its own monotonous ignorance and that whole tiresome cliché. Even though Schumacher has drastically limited his scope (pun alert!) here, he’s still managed to direct a film with a story that ultimately caused me to have to seriously stretch my imagination to believe that it doesn’t contain any plotholes. There isn’t much to be said about the performances, but Colin Farrell’s accent does do a number of odd transformations.
The final plot-twist is quite predictable; it fails with trying to convey a cautionary moral message about the attitudes of the modern public, but by this time the film has accumulated enough points in the ‘suspenseful entertainment’ department to prevent itself from falling into the realm of ridiculousness. If one decides to forgive the illogicalities and clichés of ‘Phone Booth,’ then they’ll likely be able to appreciate its sleek, terse rhythm.
