PHONE BOOTH
US, 2002, 82 minutes, Colour.
Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland, Forest Whitaker, Radha Mitchell, Katie Holmes
Directed by Joel Schumacher
Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell) is a cocky young publicist. His clothes, his mobile phone, his deals for clients—all these define who he is. He tries to impress his trainee, Adam, and is infatuated with an aspiring actress, Pam (Katie Holmes). He loves his wife, Kelly (Radha Mitchell), but this does not stop him from going into the only old-fashioned phone booth left in Manhattan every day, slipping off his wedding ring, and calling Pam.
As he removes his ring to call Pam one day, a man tries to deliver a pizza to him in the booth. Stu rudely sends him away. When the phone rings in the booth, Stu answers it. It is a man (Kiefer Sutherland) who tells Stu it is not in his best interest to hang up. Stu is then caught in a terrorizing conversation with the caller, who boasts that he has executed several men who were morally guilty of cruelty, greed, or deception and would not confess to their sins and failings. The caller proves he is serious when he shoots Leon, a pimp who is trying to force Stu to leave the phone booth so his prostitutes can use the phone. The police converge, a crowd gathers, and the television crews turn up. Everyone thinks Stu is Leon’s killer at first, and the caller/sniper threatens Stu with death if he hangs up or lets the police know what is actually happening.
The sniper enjoys tormenting Stu in a cat and mouse game. He forces him to do dangerous things like reaching for a gun hidden near the light in the ceiling of the phone booth. When Kelly arrives on the scene, the caller insists that Stu tell the truth about his infidelities to her in front of everyone, which Stu does.
Captain Ramey (Forest Whitaker), who heads the police effort, slowly figures out what is happening. He, too, is humiliated when the sniper/caller insists that Stu confront him with secret truths about his life. But the captain remains steady, willing to hear the truth. Eventually, the sniper’s threats and lies overwhelm Stu, who makes a full confession of his deceit-filled life to everyone watching. He leaves the booth, arms extended, willing to be killed. The police shoot him with a rubber bullet to misdirect the sniper. The media records every word and action for the evening news.
Stu and the captain figure out the sniper’s location. When the police arrive, they find only the dead pizza man. The police assume it is the killer who shot himself. The medic gives Stu an injection for the pain as he waits in the ambulance. As Stu begins to feel the drug’s effect, the real sniper passes by and urges Stu to maintain his new-found honesty.
During the 1930s, Patrick Hamilton (author of Gaslight) wrote a radio play about a man who was pursued from telephone booth to telephone booth by an unseen assailant until he was shamed into admitting the truth about his life. Seventy years later, the concept reached the screen with this film written by Larry Cohen and directed by Joel Schumacher. Cohen became successful in the 1970s and 1980s by writing and directing a succession of small-budget horror films such as It's Alive, The Stuff, and Q, The Winged Serpent. Joel Schumacher directed some of the biggest hits of the 1990s, including Falling Down, two Batman films, and two adaptations of John Grisham novels, A Time to Kill and The Client. He also directed the movie version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera. However, he made a number of small-budget dramas like Flawless and his Vietnam movie, Tigerland. Phone Booth was made in ten days with a minimal budget and has a very brief running time, but Schumacher's flair ensures that this is an impressive and tense drama.
Colin Farrell emerged as a popular leading man in Schumacher's Tigerland and reinforced it in Hart's War, Minority Report, Daredevil, The Recruit, and S.W.A.T. He appeared in seven films in 2003 and had the lead role in the 2004 epic Alexander, directed and written by Oliver Stone. Farrell suits the part of Stu perfectly. Kiefer Sutherland provides the sinister voice of the judgmental sniper, and Forest Whitaker (The Crying Game) is the careful and sympathetic police chief. Schumacher is something of a razzle-dazzle director, and he uses this style to pump up audience tension and excitement by pacing Stu's growing exasperation, the hectic pulse of Manhattan, and the circus atmosphere provided by the crowds of onlookers and the media.
Katie Holmes (Dawson’s Creek; I know what You did Last Summer, The Gift, The Singing Detective) appears as Stu's unwitting girlfriend, and Radha Mitchell (High Art, Pitch Black, Melinda and Melinda) as his wife.
1.An interesting thriller? Psychological thriller? The experience of the phone, communication, a vehicle for threats? Violence? Truth?
2.The New York settings, the filming on the streets, hand-held cameras, the phone booth, the background buildings? The musical score?
3.The title, phones in films? The prologue, the satellite, the phone system, cell phones, pay phones? The collages? People talking? The last booth? The calls, the kiosk?
4.The situation, the agent and publicist, his assistant, other people’s lives in danger, the sniper, the police?
5.The agent, on the street, the inserting of the pictures, the deals, Adam and his emulation of Stu?
6.Stu, his palaver, the clients, events, venues? His spiel? The police information? Tickets? Publicists? Photos, headlines? Information and lies? The restaurant, Mario, the promises? Adam and his wanting to get ahead?
7.Going into the booth, the pizza delivery man, his rudeness, the reaction to the pizza man, the irony of his murder? Ringing Pam, the relationship with Pam, taking the ring off?
8.The first call, the sniper and his threats, the pizza, the neighbourhood, the command to obey, the windows, knowing all the information about Stu? Stu and the threat, his being crushed, his cocky reaction?
9.The second call, ringing Pam, not kidding about, the lies, the explanation, his explanations to Pam about the cell phone? Kelly, the cheap hotels? The hooker, calling Kelly, listening? The sniper wanting Stu to tell the truth about Pam?
10.The rifle, the shot, his being urged to be a man? The reasons for shooting? The ten dollars to the man? The intrusion of Leon?
11.Leon being shot, blaming Stu? The issue of respect, guilty of inhumanity? The other deaths? Stu to be punished?
12.The police, calling for hands up, the sniper talking, Captain Remey, the use of the split screen, keeping people at bay, the sniper laughing, the weapon, the psychological effect, the issue of rights, the lawyer? The interrogation about sex, masturbation, Vietnam?
13.The media arriving, tracing the call? The sniper telling Stu he was in this position because of sin? Media talk, the superior officer? The issue of tracing the call and forming a subsequent plan?
14.Kelly’s arrival, the information to Captain Remey, getting Kelly away? The taunts to Stu about Kelly and other men, Stu making an apology, hanging up?
15.The new call, the tantrum, Captain Remey and the search for the perpetrator, the gun planted? Stu being attacked as full of lies? Pam – and his being forced to take the gun, Stu’s option to kill either Kelly or Pam? The ring on the floor, the cell phone, Captain Remey and Kelly hearing it? Remey’s tactics?
16.Remey and Stu, the psychological talk, the references to Oprah? His sins finally catching up with him, Stu confessing, promising to do what was right, no more half-truths, baring his soul? The sniper offering the choice to redeem himself? The confession, fantasies? Being nice to people? Stu and his public confession, about Adam and his treatment of him, Kelly, part of the cycle of lies? The sniper continually watching him, Stu being forced to say that he was ashamed of himself? His image, not liking what was under the surface? The sniper – and his statement that he never intended Stu to be free?
17.Getting the information, Stu threatening the sniper, challenging him to take him? The sniper and the shot, the rubber bullet? The search of the apartment, the sniper gone, the pizza man dead? The sniper passing by the phone booth? His remarks to Stu? The reconciliation with Kelly, hoping that the newfound honesty would last – as the sniper said, “Or else you’ll be hearing from me”?
18.The overall psychological effect, audiences identifying with the characters, the situation? The issue of morality, confession, redemption?
