The Call

Had this movie been done in the ‘70’s, it would have been an ABC movie of the week and starred Donna Mills (although I would have cast Judy Pace and Don Mitchell as the handsome detective), one of the Brady Bunch Girls, Andrew Prine or Bradford Dillman as the kidnapper, and Lee Majors as the cop boyfriend. Since we didn’t have cell phones yet, the action would have taken place in a mansion where a blind Brady kid had been left alone. It would be a cat and mouse game as the kidnapper searched the house for the kid who’s in the basement on the phone with Donna Mills. In the ‘70’s B-movies were on television. Now they’ve made their return to theaters as well as DVD, Netflix originals, and cable.

A writer must first ask him or herself if the premise for their story is intriguing enough to hold the interest of the audience. Next there needs to be an evaluation of whether the struggle between pro and antagonist is sufficiently protracted to span the fully story. And finally, who is the intended audience.

Craft-wise, THE CALL has an interesting Premise: A 911 operator makes a critical mistake that ultimately causes the death of a victim she was trying to help. Guilt-ridden, she gets a second chance at personal justice when a new victim is kidnapped by the same psycho and reaches out to the operator to save her life.

This set-up has some great elements. The intriguing, little known world of the 911 rescue workers is highlighted in fascinating detail centering on a huge hi-tech control center called “The Hive.” The calm professionalism these workers need to conduct themselves, their “Quiet Room” used for stress relief, and the relationship with other law enforcement support establish a world we’ve rarely seen depicted on screen before. (In some ways this film is a distant cousin to 1965’s “The Slender Thread” starring Sidney Poitier as a suicide hot line operator co-starring Anne Bancroft and Telly Savalas.) This story does a good job establishing Jordan’s (an effective Halle Berry) moral need (re-establishing her self-worth) and her goal of saving the girl (an equally effective Abigail Bresslin). It’s a clear-cut story of redemption that’s universal in appeal at the concept level.

In the first half of the movie when Abigail Bresslin is abducted by the nut and put in the trunk of his car, the strategies Berry encourages her to use to help the police find her are both credible and fascinating. The suspense is well rendered here. Things move along in a logical police-procedural pace until the last act of the movie. Now the logic becomes a little strained and the tone switches to that of an‘80’s slasher flick minus a lot of promiscuous dead teenagers. I won’t give the ending away but it seems very artificial and diminishes much of what has come before. That’s on a craft level. This is actually very good B-movie material and if followed to it’s logical conclusions with some of the earlier clever beats, the writing might have felt more organically satisfying.

Commercially, THE CALL wears its mantra of female empowerment firmly on its didactic sleeve. The conclusion is meant to encourage women to stand up and pump their fists in a communal, “Yes!” The sentiment isn’t the problem. It’s how we get there that exposes the lazy writing. But I guess the producers felt since we have Halle Berry with her movie-star visage coupled with real acting ability that will make up for the glaring short-comings. I wish they had given the psycho some unique backstory instead of plucking him out of the “standard disturbed lunatic” bin. He should have gone to Christopher Walken or Bruce Dern for pointers on how to make a nut case interesting. This is the kind of story that Larry Cohen (“It’s Alive,” “God Told Me To,” “Phone Booth”) could have written in his sleep and still made the story sound within the boundaries of the “woman in jeopardy” genre.

Finally, that crazy wig they made Halle wear had people in the theater howling with laughter. She’s so fine she can get away with almost anything but that wig…even she had a hard time with that demon. In spite of all these drawbacks, I hope the movie does well. It’s good to have a major film with a black woman in the lead and a diverse cast where race is not the central issue. In some ways, we are becoming more expansive as a society.