The Call is – in a nutshell – Cellular meets Silence of The Lambs. Halle Berry plays a 911 Emergency operator in L.A who’s been emotionally scarred by the murder of a caller she couldn’t help in time. (a. It wasn’t really her fault and b. the apparent lack of post-trauma counselling for the staff is something I’d think the unions might want to look at, but I digress….) Six months later, Halle is back on the frontlines, when Abigail Breslin calls from the trunk of a car where she’s been kidnapped by a Buffalo Bill type who’s in love with his sister or something. So Halle keeps Abigail on the line for the next hour and a half while she tries to track the call.
Now maintaining a call in a moving vehicle is a jump-the-shark moment for anyone with an iPhone5, or anyone whose conversations have been abruptly and routinely dropped on Hospital Bend or on the raised freeway around the Foreshore, or going over the neck on High Level Road. But apart from that, and from the predictability of the plot, it’s really quite a fun little movie. Won’t be winning any awards, but a fun enough way to spend some time.