Released: March 15, 2013. Directed by: Brad Anderson. Starring: Halle Berry, Abigail Breslin, Evie Thompson. Runtime: 94 min.
“The Call” is a run-of-the-mill but enjoyable thriller that stars Halle Berry. Berry’s character, Jordan Turner, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after an ordinary phone call goes wrong. There is an intruder in a young girl’s house, she hides under the bed, and when they get disconnected – Jordan makes a diar mistake, she redials the phone. The killer comes back upstairs for the girl, and he gets her.
This event makes Jordan resign from her current post, and she now teaches people how to be 911 operators instead. Skip ahead six months, and a young blonde named Casey Welson (Abigail Breslin) is abducted at a local mall. She has a phone in her pocket so she phones the police where she eventually gets to talk to Jordan. Jordan realizes, that in order to save the girl, she must confront a killer from her past.
This is a decent thriller. It’s just a bit disappointing. Breslin and Berry perform well. The movie begins with a heightened sense of realism, but it gets silly and much too conventional. Violence heightens and the clichés begin. Being a cop and investigating something without backup is one thing, but being a 9-1-1 operator and doing the same thing is a whole different, and ridiculous, story. The thrills are good and many viewers will still be entertained, but the conventionality keeps it from being anything great. The movie is creepy, so that’s effective; but as a whole, it just isn’t special.
Score: 63/100
Filmcraziest 
Sounds like a decent enough flick. I do hate it when a good concept is ruined by a conventional ending though.
It seems like that happens a lot these days 😦
It sounds like one of those films where they writer has a great concept to start with but no idea how to make it into a full movie.
I have a lot of those ideas hahaah 😉
Good review. Mostly I agree.
I liked this a lot until the final third. Even then I thought it was well above average. Until the last shot. The Call has the worst ending of 2013.
That seems to happen a lot with us, haha. Yeah, it isn’t the greatest ending – I don’t know if I’d call it the worst of 2013, however… I’d have to think about all the films I saw
🙂
I thought it was so bad I dropped my grade from the B I would have given it. To a C.
Good review Dan. I was surprised that this movie started-out as good as it did. But of course, like expected, things took a turn for the worse and just got dumb.
Happens so often these days.
Dan, you’re the man, but I have to disagree a bit with ya here. Yes it gets silly and unbelievable in that last third of the film, BUT, that shouldn’t change how you feel about the first 2/3. When I was watching, my score was in the 90s until that last third, when it was booted down to the eighties, but I loved most of the film, and that should count for something, right?
I see what you mean, but I think a 63 is a fair score for a generally conventional flick. What did you end up giving it? I’m glad you liked this, though.
Haha, I eventually gave it 86%. I don’t consider it generally conventional, I call it overall above average, the first 2/3 I loved and consider almost perfect.
Pretty sweet score! I guess we see differently on this one. It definitely was not bad, though.