Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

PHONE BOOTH is a 20th Century Fox Films presentation, rated R for pervasive language and some violence. With a brisk 81 minute run time, it opened theatrically one day after my 19th birthday on April 4, 2003.

Larry Cohen had this great idea for a story which he supposedly pitched to Alfred Hitchcock in the sixties. Yes I’m referring to one Larry Cohen, the man who will turn 65 on July 15 and has written such cult classics as IT’S ALIVE, Q: THE WINGED SERPENT, MANIAC COP, THE STUFF, GOD TOLD ME TO, and, seeing as how the Fourth of July passed, UNCLE SAM. It was all about a man stuck in a phone booth in a deadly situation, and it was an idea which gripped the famous director, but Cohen couldn’t come up with a plot device to keep interest until the late nineties, when Cohen got the idea of using a sniper. Thus, he completed a quick screenplay and Joel Schumacher would be directing the movie which was based on his screenplay.

Schumacher has had a hit-and-miss directorial resume, but with PHONE BOOTH, he was able to tap and old friend to star in the lead role. That guy was Dublin dude Colin Farrell, whose become hot property with roles in the blockbusters MINORITY REPORT, THE RECRUIT and DAREDEVIL. But Farrell had an earlier, better role in Schumacher’s TIGERLAND, so this is truly where the breakthrough started. Farrell got the lead role in the movie, and a supporting cast was assembled including Forest Whitaker (PANIC ROOM, GREEN DRAGON), Radha Mitchell (HIGH ART, PITCH BLACK), Katie Holmes (ABANDON, WONDER BOYS), and the invaluable Schumacher regular Kiefer Sutherland (THE LOST BOYS, FLATLINERS and A TIME TO KILL). The movie was filmed in only 12 days in downtown Los Angeles, and the movie was set to be released on November 15, 2002.

However, reality played a cruel part in the opening of the film, as the Beltway Sniper attacks in Maryland and Washington, D.C. caused so much turmoil the film had to get pushed up to a later release in 2003. But here it finally is, after a seemingly brief theatrical run that saw it a number one hit, PHONE BOOTH rings up the thrills on DVD.

The story is set in the life of a fast-talking New York publicist cum hustler with raspberry-over-black clothes and phony Rolex named Stu Shepard (Farrell), the kind of guy who seems to have all his bases covered. He’s got what it takes to do his job right, a lack of a conscience which results in him having to lie worse than any lawyer, and a self-importance and smug intelligence that keeps him and his clients on their toes. Stu is also a married man, wed to one beautiful woman named Kelly (Mitchell), but that doesn’t stop him from making contact with a possible cheat in the form of the attractive budding actress Pamela McFadden (Holmes). He calls Pamela at the phone booth located at 53rd and 8th, the only available phone booth in the city for private matters; see, he‘s too smart to have a suspicious call linked to his cell phone. Even though he has to push a pizza guy around to get his call over and done, Stu does it. But when he gets out of the booth, the phone rings once again.

“Isn’t it funny...you hear a phone ring, and it could be anyone, but a ringing phone has to be answered, doesn’t it?”

When Stu picks it up, the voice on the other end of the line isn’t of his beloved mistress, but a cheesed man with a snake-like voice, the voice belonging to KIEFER SUTHERLAND! The Caller (as the credit ol’ Kiefer is given) seems to have got Stu by the balls, as he knows everything about his stuffy attitude, his brash scheming, and, more importantly, his double affairs! But Stu has no chance of escaping that phone booth anyway: the man has a telescopic sniper rife pointing out of one of the hundred windows surrounding Stu. Trouble brews when he tries to save face in front of some insistent streetwalkers who want that phone booth, and get so desperate they call their pimp out to add some muscle. But The Caller gives Stu some relief by placing a bullet in the man’s backside, only problem is that now HE’S THE VILLAIN!

The movie runs a great 81 minutes, but the movie basically lasts 74 if you ditch the credits. That’s a surprisingly short running time, but they successfully cram as much tension and suspense into those moments set in the booth that it seems over before you know it. One of the problems is that in those 70 plus minutes, you only seem to get to really know one character, and that kind of detracts from some of the other characters’ appeal.

The most prominent human presence other than Stu is Captain Ed Ramey (Whitaker), who at first takes Stu as the suspect but eventually starts to feel sympathy for the man and discover maybe he really is in a deep situation. All the while, the killer is cackling and looming in the midst, training his red dot on everyone, from Ed to the two flames and even Stu’s fast-beating heart. There’s some real great interplay between Farrell and Whitaker as respectable characters.

And like most good thrillers, they can either be made or broken by the appearance of either their hero or their villain, or even both. In this case, we are in good hands. Kiefer Sutherland is a maddeningly unsettling and deliciously sardonic verbal presence who simply just loves to screw with our hero’s head like it’s his hobby. He taunts Stu about childhood fears and getting stuck in Vietnam just for the sick thrill of it. When he fixes his sights on possible targets, his mouth is behind him and sending daggers through the ear of Mr. Shepard. And Colin Farrell makes Stu a sympathetic worm who at first thinks money talks so loud it can actually make the BS walk, but then soon learns who’s shoveling what. Think of this movie as a bizarre morality play, written by a man who had a concept about such during a time when those were still popular. Not that I don’t think it doesn’t work here; it’s a cheap device now, but it makes for an effective generator of nail-biting electricity.

But with most movies that are meant to accompany your popcorn container, this requires you to put some things off for a moment. For instance, the ending, while it did deliver a great chill down my back, it did kind of bother me why didn’t anybody get suspicious of a certain passerby. It doesn’t help that the DVD art used on the cover of this movie betrays the original theater lobby poster which had Colin, Forest, Katie and Radha on it instead of a visual image of Kiefer. In a way, that turns out to be a spoiler.

Other than that, we have to deal with the fact that why everybody gets suspicious of Stu killing the pimp when in fact the bullet hit his back and Stu wasn’t even able to reach for a gun in the grasp of the psychotic street trash. It requires some hysterical overacting from the three actresses (particularly Paula Jai Parker, funny but too frenetic as the blonde-haired one named Felicia) who play the prostitutes, and it felt like a cheese grater was massaging my most vital nerve. There is also your typical pecker of a policeman who gives the good cop a hard time, and he comes in and out of the movie in due time. And the movie also contains some underwritten roles for Stu’s female relations, particularly the always fetching Katie Holmes as the girlfriend. She is relegated to standing in the background in shock at the situation, and I think that’s a waste.

But still the movie holds its own, and in most part its due to Joel Schumacher, who directs with gripping roller coaster ride urgency that proudly reaches its stopping point early enough to keep it from becoming tedious. He unleashes some neat quadruple or triple frame sequences where we see multiple perspective scenes inside and outside the phone booth. Other than that, he proudly makes use of the cold, gloomy atmosphere employed by cinematographer Matthew Libatique (the D.P. who worked with Daron The movie digs into a very bleak reality and milks it for all its worth. As far as popcorn movies go, this is enough to make you forgive BATMAN AND ROBIN.

Irishman Colin Farrell, sporting thick facial hair and weight-of-the-world pressure, also does a neat balancing act in this movie, balancing the Italian suit-clad cockiness of the exterior Stu, who proudly dishes Britney Spears tickets to a sleazy cop who tips him with tabloid news he can sell to the New York Post, with the deeper, more insecure side of him that comes out in a big way, although it seems to take a sniper to threaten that confession out of him. He explodes into ferocious honesty at one point: “I’m a big cycle of lies…I should be president.” They tell you he’s the next big thing, but f*ck that: I think he’s going to ascend to RECRUIT co-star Al Pacino’s status if he gets any luck. This guy is just a faceted performer unto himself.

Forest Whitaker is capable himself as a supporting actor, and in most movies he seems to be a sympathetic character. Here, nothing has changed. He’s still a game player who matches Farrell’s maddening acting chops with down-to-earth civility and unspoken commitment. But Forest is such a respectable man that you can’t help but root for him to get our hero out of this pickle.

But the real drawback is the lack of attention paid to the loves in Stu’s life. Australian actress Radha Mitchell is a wonderful presence, and she plays the concerned and faithful wife like a white-clothed pro (she’s so angelic-looking it’s nuts!), but more of her would’ve made her character at least a bit more interesting. But the real shame lies in the underused presence of Katie Holmes, who retains her sunny smile and semi-husky voice in many moments, but simply lacks a lot of material to work with. Like I said, I wanted to see more of her than this situation could offer. Ah well, it’s the wait until PIECES OF APRIL finally comes out.

Kiefer Sutherland is on fire with just his voice, and that’s some really impressive acting. The Englishman of 㦄” fame plays the material for sharp queasy chills at times (he knows the worth of cocking a gun to make someone’s blood run cold) and for dark and normal comic affect (he says to Stu at one point that those people with camcorders in the crowd are just so aching to shoot him getting shot by the cops so they can sell their tapes to some TV show). And the moment we see him in the flesh is quite a thrill to behold. As his voice sucks the confidence out of the ever-complacent and slowly unraveling Stu, the musical score by Harry Gregson-Williams delivers some additional intensity and drives home the claustrophobic atmosphere.

By the time the ending comes along, you’ll be scratching your head in compliance to some of the contrivances, or you’ll simply be relieved that the ride is over and you can stop the DVD. But I felt a little of both watching this movie. My final recommendation is a three-and-a-half out of five stars, but I will round it off to a four because I really liked both Colin Farrell and Kiefer Sutherland in their hero-and-villain shtick. It makes for a fascinating watch, and dial up a nice video/DVD future if luck is on its side. PHONE BOOTH may charge you for the call, but at least it doesn’t leave you on hold for long amounts of time.

DVD DETAILS
PHONE BOOTH can be picked up on one lone DVD, thankfully, and reduces the need for separate format DVDs to be released. On one side, you get a widescreen version of the film in original theatrical aspect ration 2.35:1 and the other side in a compressed full-frame format.

There is a surprising crispness to the transfer presented here, which only suffers from a couple of flaws on the picture, being some minor grainy spots and slight edge enhancement. Other than that, the quality lies upon the way this film was shot. Much of the film was shot in bleak, lightly pale desaturation complete with blue hues, and this DVD version proudly captures these techniques in a highly sharp and detailed manner. Colors shine through the murkiness, as do flesh tones, and I had no problem with any inconsistent shadow detail or blackness levels. It’s a successful FOX DVD presentation that never fails to deliver, and will please your home theatre system.

The 5.1 track employs the most of Kiefer Sutherland’s fiery snarl and venomous taunts in a neat way, as his dialogue remains as distinct and free of hiss as I heard it when it originally played at my local movie house. Also, I was happy that the voice flowed through the various channels and made its presence known. Ambience and effects are captured real well, such as in the opening scene with the inter-cutting phone calls and satellite touches, and rings and vehicle noises are all attentive. No dialogue vs. music contrasts were problematic, and I got clear speech and bassy, aural pleasure from the minimal music compositions. But really, I commend this DVD for playing Hot Potato with the various voices in those overlapping shots.

But those people at FOX f*cked up considerably well on the extras. How does this film get so meager an amount of bonus material, and they give JUST MARRIED a more Royale treatment?! There’s the theatrical trailers for this and GARAGE DAYS, but the only other bonus lies in an audio commentary from Joel Schumacher, recorded before the film was even released (I’m suspecting the original release date, since he hardly acknowledges the cruel joke played on him thanks to those Beltway motherf*ckers). Joel’s got a nice sense of humor as he delves into the details on shooting the movie in ten days, as well as some neat on-the-set stories and thoughts on everything from the music to the script and the visuals and, of course, the cast. Though he does delve into personal details (his heroin demons pay a visit) and less of the technical aspects, I found this a neat listen that merits attention, although only a true fan of the film need make a purchase.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age