Phone Booth Reviews

One of the movies which you can't decide if you feel bad for the hero, or you think that he deserves what happens for him. That's why you feel tension all of the time.. sometimes you feel sorry for his wife, sometimes you don't! I do believe that it's one of the few movies that could make you know the real you by the emotions it brings to you.

It has been a while since I have seen this flick and I should definitely re-watch it at some point. First of all, I’m well aware of the fact that, ever since the ‘Batman & Robin’ debacle, Joel Schumacher has always had a rather lousy reputation but, somehow, I always had a weak spot for his work. I mean, sure, except for the criminally underrated ‘Tigerland’, he hasn't done anything really brilliant but most of his movies are actually quite entertaining and this flick is a fine example. Indeed, 2 years after ‘Tigerland’, Joel Schumacher decided to work again with Colin Farrell and he gave us once again one of his best features. I mean, sure, the whole concept was really far-fetched and terribly limited but that was also its appeal and they managed to get most of this concept. Indeed, one of the nice touch was to make the main character a fairly sleezy and unlikeable guy and the fact that Farrell gave a really solid performance was definitely an asset as well. To conclude, even though it wasn’t really a masterpiece, I thought it was a solid thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

A haunting slogan from the golden days of radio, spoken by the disembodied voice on ''The Shadow,'' was the boast: ''Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows,'' followed by an insinuating cackle. In ''Phone Booth,'' Joel Schumacher's flashy stunt of a movie, a contemporary descendant of that phantom voice unleashes a similarly nasty, all-knowing snicker every few minutes during the protracted phone conversation that consumes most of this clanking, overheated thriller.

The target of derision, Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell), is a scruffy young New York publicist who resembles an up-to-date version of Sidney Falco from ''Sweet Smell of Success.'' Stu's grubby little world is shaken one afternoon when he picks up the ringing telephone in the Midtown Manhattan phone booth he uses to make secret calls to his prospective girlfriend, Pamela McFadden (Katie Holmes), and finds himself the captive of a mysterious male caller who seems to know every detail of his life.

Pamela, an aspiring actress whom Stu has been stringing along with career advice and vague promises of introductions to showbiz biggies, is unaware that Stu is married. Nor does Stu's pretty blond wife, Kelly (Radha Mitchell), who works in a store on Columbus Avenue, realize that hubby has a wandering eye. Although gussied up with all sorts of cinematic tricks and a jittery, ticking soundtrack, ''Phone Booth,'' which Mr. Schumacher directed from a screenplay by Larry Cohen, is essentially a one-act radio play in which a sadistic voyeur with a high-powered rifle plays humiliating cat-and-mouse games with an urban everyman and taunts him into breaking down and confessing his sins.

Early on, the omniscient caller warns Stu that if he doesn't cooperate with every instruction, he will be shot dead from one of the thousands of windows looking out over the street. To prove he means business, the sniper summarily kills a loudmouthed pimp (John Enos III) who has been pestering Stu (with a baseball bat) to vacate the booth so his girls can use it to make dates.

Naturally Stu is assumed to be the killer. And when it turns out the sniper has thought ahead and stashed a gun in the roof of the booth to make him appear guilty, Stu (who came without a weapon) seems to be a goner no matter what happens. If the sniper, who again demonstrates his marksmanship by grazing one of Stu's ears, doesn't kill him, the police officers who arrive in force surely will.

''Phone Booth'' begins to lose its tenuous grip on reality once the law appears. Captain Ramey (Forest Whitaker), who leads a force of itchy-fingered sharpshooters, tries to negotiate with Stu, whom the caller coerces into inventing reasons he can't leave the booth. As the standoff drags on, what little suspense the movie had built up rapidly drains away.

Desperately stalling for time, the movie, which opens today nationwide (after being postponed from last fall because of the Washington-area sniper attacks), starts padding itself by taking tangents into the police captain's failed marriage. When a frantic Kelly appears on the scene, Stu (presumably to protect her) pretends she's a crazy woman who has been stalking him. By the time it dawns on the captain (for no particular reason other than that it's time to end the movie) that Stu may not be the killer, ''Phone Booth'' has used up its last quarter.

''Phone Booth'' is bogus on every level, right down to its half-hearted trick ending. The urban realism (foul-mouthed prostitutes and tough-talking cops) is as garishly clichéd as the media circus that builds around the killing. As a moral fable, ''Phone Booth'' is entirely meretricious. For one thing, Stu is awfully small potatoes compared with the big shots the sniper boasts of having executed in similar circumstances. Stu may have lust in his heart, but technically he still hasn't cheated. When he finally blubbers out his failures, there's nothing on the list that ought to get a metaphysical vigilante so riled up.

Mr. Farrell, who resembles a younger, bushier-eyebrowed Brad Pitt, acquits himself decently enough as the scuffling Bronx-born hustler who favors Italian suits. But this likable Irish actor, touted as Hollywood's studly flavor of the last several months, ultimately lacks the soulful magnetism that signifies a major screen presence.

So what is ''Phone Booth'' good for? If you want to soak in some more bad urban vibes to add to the ones already floating around, the movie could be your masochistic treat.

Very few films focus and remain in just one location, but those that do have to grab your interest and keep you engrossed for over an hour, this demands a great script and lots of tension/drama. On paper Phone Booth isn’t going to succeed as one of those films, for a start it focuses on Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell), an arrogant and selfish publicist, who is contemplating cheating on his wife –not your typical lead character. Secondly it’s about a single sniper holding Stu captive in a phone booth, you only know this from the phone call Stu is having, and later when shots are fired! But despite and because of this the film actually works really well on a number of levels. You watch Stu being tormented by a hidden sniper and slowly you begin to sympathise for this heartless person and even put yourself in his shoes, whilst appreciating just how cleaver the hidden foe truly is. Imagine yourself in Stu’s predicament, how would you cope/escape? Just when you think the situation cannot get any worse, it does, again and again. When police arrive, instead of being rescued Stu now must face tens of pistols and rifles all pointing all at him. Stu is also faced with a moral question. I won’t ruin it for you by giving away any clues to what happens, who lives, who dies, what choices are made, but if you haven’t seen this movie yet give it a go. You may be pleasantly surprised.