Phone Booth Details

Reuniting the Tigerland team of director Joel Schumacher and star Colin Farrell, this lean, innovative thriller has a compelling premise, but is too gimmicky to maintain its grip until the end. Farrell plays an arrogant publicist who is trapped in a New York phone booth by an unseen sniper, apparently as retribution for attempting to start an affair with a client (Katie Holmes). The psychological warfare waged on Farrell by “The Caller” — voiced with malevolence by Kiefer Sutherland — carries a suspenseful charge, which is aided by Schumacher's use of techniques such as real-time and split screen that can be seen in Sutherland's own TV series 24. Although the two central performances are credible, Larry Cohen's script eventually resorts to melodrama, with the arrival of amiable cop Forest Whitaker and the media dissipating much of the tension. However, despite a less than satisfying final act, this still pushes plenty of the right buttons.

"...Director Joel Schumacher, with the help of the gifted cinematographer Matthew Libatique makes a tight, tense job of it....Farrell is a dynamo..."