The Call (2013)

Running Time: 94 mins
Genre: Thriller
Estimated Budget: $13, 000,000
Estimated Gross: $51, 872,378

Director: Brad Anderson
Stars: Halle Berry, Abigail Breslin, Michael Eklund

Just watching the trailer for The Call had me on the edge of my seat, so imagine what I was like watching the film. There is nothing very complex about the plot to this film. A 911 emergency worker Jordan (Berry) is confident and capable until she has one unfocused moment during a break-in call from a young girl. The mistake she makes in this moment happens to be a fatal one, so we begin the film with Berry's character taking a serious emotional blow, one that effects her so badly that she takes six months off, is taking prescribed medication and is no longer on the call floor (nicknamed the Hive) but teaching new recruits the ropes.

When showing some new recruits the Hive, a call comes in to a fairly new staff member. A teenage girl (Breslin) has woken up after being abducted to find herself in the boot of a car (trunk if your American). The young member of staff taking the call cannot handle the pure fear and emotion coming from this girl shouting into the phone. Jordan must step up, this is her worst nightmare, she doesn't think she is ready but she is flung in at the deep end and musters up the courage to fight her urge to run and just help this girl. Halle Berry gives a stunning performance in this film, a great tribute to the men and women who are at the forefront of accident and emergency services. You have to marvel at the way the emergency services is run - how fast they have to work and collect information. Berry's character states that they are well guarded because if they go down the whole city goes down, you can readily believe this fact.

The script is very clever, there are not many locations, a lot of it takes place in the claustrophobic boot of a car. But Anderson never lets the audience get ahead of him, he builds the tension to breaking point and then switches direction and starts all over again. I was literally biting the ends of my fingers in anticipation. How was this poor girl ever going to get out of this situation. Abigail Breslin is the damsel in distress and she plays it exactly as you would expect a kidnapped teen to handle the circumstances, in complete panic and despair. It is when she begins to listen to Jordan's soothing words and to fight back against her kidnapper that she shows some spark.

And speaking of the kidnapper, Michael Eklund plays the obviously troubled man who kidnaps Breslin's Casey. It sounds horrible to say, but he just has the face for it, or maybe he can just distort his face into the menacing but emotionally void expressions he pulls. He switches from both anger to panic as his plan begins to unfold and he is forced to do things he apparently doesn't want to do. Throughout the film there are hints or patterns in his behavior that hint at something under the surface; a reason for his actions. Towards the end of the film we do discover the reason but really I think his character would have remained much more menacing if they had left us in the dark so to speak. The ultimate reason for his behavior is rather too extreme and doesn't make that much sense.

What is fantastic about the film is the tension and the realism that the film-makers bring to this story. The tension is built and keeps building throughout. Until unfortunately and maybe inevitably it peaks towards the end and it becomes predictable and unrealistic. From the beginning though until the last 20 minutes or so, the situation is so real, so believable. Everything Jordan says and does you can imagine being said in that circumstance. Everything that Casey does desperately trying to escape stays within believability, you can imagine doing them yourself if god forbid you were in that situation. So really it is the realism that cements the films success, that goes for story location, timing, set-ups, all as true to life as possible.

Therefore the end is quite disappointing, it is spoiled slightly by the unrealistic actions of the main character. I as a person totally approve of the actions she takes but in a story like this which had held such a great balance from the start, her actions then take you out of that and into the relatively ridiculous, her character/real person in her position would never attempt her actions.

Despite the lack of realism though, the ending is still gripping, exciting and satisfying. I suppose you can't really ask for more than that. If you love a good thriller then give this a go, pretty scary stuff, you'll look behind you when your walking alone for a while trust me. An 8/10 for this effort.