Rating: 8/10
Review date: June 7, 2003
A New York publicist named Stu (Colin Farrell) who always cheats his way to reap benefits for himself finally learns a big lesson when he picks up a ringing phone one day. Apparently the caller is fed up with Stu’s lifestyle and had decided to aim a rifle at him as well as threatening to shoot him dead if he hangs up…
Phone Booth is finally released in 2003 after almost 2 years of delay, the first being the WTC incident on September 11 which caused the movie to slide to 2002 where the Washington sniper attack occurs thus causing the second delay. I would have to say that the long wait was definitely worth it.
The premise is definitely a cool one with a running time of approximately 80 minutes and most of the movie taking place in one phone booth. The plot is great with a few twists (as usual) and great dialogue which really keeps me on the edge of my seat while trying to guess how the movie will end.
This brings me to one negative issue about the movie which is the ending that I think could have been slightly improved. What I mean is that I correctly guessed how the movie is going to end and it doesn’t provide me with the “thrill” that I’ve been experiencing so abundantly throughout the movie.
Acting wise, Colin Farrell performs his role excellently with a gradual degradation of character seen from his cocky attitude at the beginning of the show into a depressed, desperate and frustrated man as the movie progressed. Kiefer Sutherland as the Caller also provides an eerie nameless voice that relentlessly taunts and psychologically tortures Stu. Forest Whitaker as Captain Ramey is quite memorable as the police officer who is trying to figure the situation out since his acting perfectly suits his role in here.
Director Joel Schumacher should be commended for his role in not only incorporating such a strong cast but also being able to inject a great deal of tension at the right moments coupled with a few laughs with make the movie even better.
Despite its seemingly thin content on surface, I believe that the producers actually tried to get a few points across such as the issue on cheating your way through life which will surely come back to haunt you in life sooner or later or even the fact that you never know when your life will abruptly turn upside down such as what happened to Stu.
Overall, Phone Booth is a very well acted movie with great casts, dialogue, script and screenplay that really keep me glued to my seat. It is a very solid thriller which I still think is brought down by its ending which doesn’t really live up to the excitement built up in earlier scenes.
Memorable quote: “My two-thousand dollar watch is fake and so am I.”
-Colin Farrell as Stuart “Stu” Shepherd-
(c) Martin Taidy 2003