MOVIE REVIEW - The Call

Halle Berry is back in a starring role, in the stirring new action drama, The Call.

The Call is the story of Jordan (Berry).  She is an experienced 911 call operator who makes a tragic, but honest mistake during an emergency call.  A young girl is on the line with her explaining that there is an intruder in her home.  After the call becomes disconnected, Jordan calls her back. The intruder hears the ring, finds and eventually kills the little girl.  Jordan blames herself, and leaves the active 911 call center to become a teacher of same.

Then during a training session, a far less experienced 911operator gets an emergency call from a young girl named Casey, (Abigail Breslin).   Casey has been kidnapped by the same lunatic that killed the other girl that Jordan blames herself for.   So Jordan takes over the 911 call and attempts to make it right for herself, and to hopefully save Casey from the same fate.  Can they find Casey in time as they comb the entire city of Los Angeles to find her?

This is a pretty interesting idea for a movie.  It is very cool to go back stage at a major 911 call center and see how they do what they do on a daily basis.  Much of this movie is Jordan talking Casey through this horrible ordeal as Casey is stuffed in the trunk of a car, with an untraceable, disposable cell phone.   Sounds a bit boring I know.  But skillfully, they do keep you entranced in that conversation, and a whole lot of that is pretty compelling stuff.

Then a huge mistake in the movie and the story itself.  After her shift with the ordeal still not over, Jordan gets in her car, and heads up to the last known location Casey and her captor were though to be.  In the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, she discovers the place where Casey is. And goes in and rescues her.  It's not quite a simple as that, and this is not a spoiler problem.  You know the whole time this is going to have a good ending.  But at this point in the movie after a pretty good first hour, the last 30 minutes is just stupid, and silly.

There are a TON of unanswered questions about our characters, especially our villain that have no real resolution at all.  I mean they allude some things, but who is he really?  Why is he doing this exactly, and his motivation?  You really don't know.   How is it that Jordan, can make about 20 horrible decisions once she discovers the scene?   And where is this place, and where did it come from?  (if you see it you'll know exactly what I mean).  And of course, the ending.   Not exactly closed for another one of these.  And that's the thing. Can't we just make one singular movie anymore?   Does everything have to be set up for sequel?

But I will say, this is a pretty good idea for a cable TV show.  I could see this concept being adapted over to a weekly show.  This idea is not without merit.  But his is a movie here, and not a TV show.  So write your story, tell it, and be done with it.

Berry and Breslin are pretty good here. Berry has the lions share of the spotlight, as Breslin is mostly in the trunk, or in a compromising position, but I like her.  At 17, she's really growing up as an actress, and is shedding the chains of being a childhood kid in the movies.  This is a nice transitional role for her.  Sad the entire project isn't a bit better. 

The Call.  Good beginning, good idea.  In the end, too many mistakes to be taken seriously.