Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
If you’ve got IFC, I advise you to check the listings for any reruns this week of Jon Favreau’s highly entertaining DINNER FOR FIVE. It’s the season premiere, and it’s all DAREDEVIL this week. Favs has on Jennifer Garner, Ben Affleck, Kevin Smith, and Colin Farrell. One of the things Farrell talks about is working with Joel Schumacher on TIGERLAND and the long-delayed PHONE BOOTH.
By coincidence, Truthgame just weighed in from the UK with this glimpse at the film:
It’s a new year… and Christmas is over… Here is a new movie… Phone Booth…
Joel Schumacher… a director who apart from Falling Down and The Lost Boys is basically a hack director with a flamboyant reputation and a knack for over dressing (his sets)… This film could have failed so easily and in some ways it does – but on the whole it’s a fun movie with several scenes of suspense and nice line of perversion running through out. Schumacher has yet to validate himself to me – but this is after Batman and Robin and for me 8mm – A truly terrible movie that raped an excellent script by Andrew Kevin Walker and THEN tried very hard to be edgy by some “edgy camera work” and under exposing the photography… all at the same time as killing the story of the balls that made it such an intriguing project to begin with…
Colin Farrell is a man in need of hit. I don’t know if this film will be the one to break his cherry (and Minority Report was Tom Cruises movie – you talk backing anally retentive geek, fuckwit, lonely, loser, twat motherfuckers) This film does prove that Colin can act AND carry a film.
This is the sort of movie Hitchcock would have knocked off in his sleep… Schumacher appears to try his hardest…
Schumacher is again trying a little too hard. The opening scene is pure effort with little payoff… We start in space. We see a satellite (seriously bad CGI) and then the camera assumes the POV of a radio signal that goes straight into the New York phone. We see another phone call – again random… A voice over stating the number of phones in New York and the people that use them… And BANG… We see Colin Farrell walking down the street in an expensive suit and with a skinny intern behind him…
The film opens with Farrell playing a really fun character. Basically a PR Exec on fire. A man who knows everyone, has a line for every situation and the chutzpah to carry it off… Reviews keep calling the character sleazy - he isn’t – he just an honest representation of every agent, lawyer and mediawhore who ever looked the other way as he fucked his mother… And Farrell has some killer lines… At one point he says to a couple of crackwhores “fuck off or I’ll call Hilary and have you deported to New Jersey!” Great line… Sadly it might go over the heads of many viewers… but still a great line – well delivered.
A minute later and after Farrell has walked about 3 city blocks he ends up in a phone booth to call a wannabe actress he’s fucking on the side played by Katie Holmes. She cant see him that day cos’ she’s doing a scene from Jerry Maguire – The Renee Zellwegger part!) He puts the phone down and then it begins… The phone rings he picks it up and it’s the sniper… Basic rules… Put the phone down and you die. Leave the phone booth and you die. (He only uses the phone booth because his wife checks his mobile phone bills)
I don’t want to explain the whole plot but the film covers, surprisingly, many ideas in the next 60 minutes of screen time… From people wanting to use the phone, to the police thinking Farrell is a killer and they want him out of the Phone Booth to the media circus the event becomes with TV news crews covering this event and this making a brutal irony of Farrell’s job PLUS the whole moral level the character floats at. His wife and his girlfriend get to share a few scenes before the movie is out… Plus we have Forrest Whittaker and his lazy eye trying to contain the situation… A lot of stuff goes on…
This is the ultimate high concept film. The film lives and dies by the success of the interaction between Farrell and the Sniper who is always unseen… This is where the high concept needs to back it up with characters and dialogue… This is where the film goes a little wrong for me…
The sniper comes across like John Doe in Se7en… Preaching on about the wrongs in the world and how Farrell must pay and has a similar delivery. Then, seconds later the Sniper is teasing, then moments later he reveals himself to be a man with a grudge against Farrell… Too many issues – none explored and none satisfactory… All are contra dictionary. Basically – Why is the Sniper doing this and why was Farrell chosen… And to make things laughable we then learn that the Sniper knows “everything” about Farrell – so the claustrophobic tension is dispersed by a dose of Hollywood scripting… Its not a disaster and Farrell and Schumacher’s direction make it all ease into shape – just at this point the film could become great and doesn’t. I remember how good John Malkovitch was in the phone scenes in In The Line Of Fire… This is not even in the same class… Its kind of ironic when you think back to the hype the script had and its famous development period where everyone from Jim Carrey to Mel Gibson to Will Smith considered the starring role and people like Michael Bay wanted the directors chair… The script is still lacking even though the concept itself is exceptional.
The film was shot in 12 Days… I find that hard to believe – especially when you realise there was a New York Unit PLUS Reshoots of the ending. Still… Some films cost $6300 so anything is possible! The question is WHY? Why make a film under such brutal conditions when the studio would happily give you 50 – 60 days – easy – to shoot? Its similar to Dogma and the whole pretentiousness of that endeavour where filmmakers made films under draconian rules so to achieve purity and honesty as well as cutting out so much flab that is part of the process… Here I don’t understand why it was done. Like Titanic and El Mariachi it’s the finished films that count – not the budgets or even production history and here the film is a good one…
Technically the film excellent… The editing and camera work fuse well together to create an edgy visual style. Both Matthew Liberteique and Mark Stevens deserve special praise… The music is sub Clint Mansell in its edgy soundscape that plays as an undercurrent through out… It’s a good score though and a surprise to see it coming from Harry Gregson Williams… Costumes and Art Department are good – especially when you learn that the phone booth set was a real location in Los Angeles and not New York.
OK… There we have it… A good film… Probably wont make much money or make Colin Farrell a star but I’m glad they tried…
As always
Truthgame
A friend I talked to who just saw the film on Saturday liked it a lot more than Truthgame did, and particularly liked the work by Kiefer Sutherland. Personally, I just want them to put it out at this point. Enough delays, already.
"Moriarty" out.
