BEFORE: It feels like July just started, and then all of a sudden it's the 12th or 13th, and that means the month is just about half over, and then I'll lose a week to Comic-Con and it will be nearly August. Is it me, or does time feel like it's sped up somehow? Then in just a couple of weeks it will be mid-August, and everyone will be thinking about September and the new fall TV season, then it will be time to buy Halloween candy and make Thanksgiving plans and get those Christmas cards out, then the year's over again. It's not just me, right?
Linking from "Compliance", Matt Servitto was in a film called "Foreclosure" with his "Sopranos" co-star, Michael Imperioli, who appears tonight.
THE PLOT: When a veteran 911 operator takes a life-altering call from a teenage girl who has just been abducted, she realizes that she must confront a killer from her past in order to save the girl's life.
AFTER: This was an OK, thriller, but like many Hollywood films, it relied on coincidence to make the story possible. What are the chances, given the number of 911 operators in the city of Los Angeles, that one would encounter the same kidnapper/killer in two calls, months or years apart, and also be aware of that situation? It makes me wonder if the film's writer even understands how the 911 system works. Berry's character here seems to have "regular" callers, like a drunk guy that she can identify by his voice, and that's just not likely at all.
The point is even made that the operators are NOT supposed to get too emotionally involved in the calls - but isn't learning the callers' names, and their weekly drinking habits, a form of getting emotionally involved? I guess all the rules are meant to be broken, since the operators are also told to NOT make promises to victims, like kidnapped girls, but that's the first thing our heroine here does in order to calm her down and get the necessary information from her.
There's some interesting stuff here, like a virtual instruction manual on what to do if a kidnapper locks you inside a car trunk - but that's overshadowed by monumental coincidences as well as what amounts to wild investigative guesswork.
It's also a little odd that the focus is put on the 911 operators - admittedly, they're an under-recognized branch of the police department, and I'm sure that the men and women who take 911 calls are a dedicated group of people - but it's still strange that when a girl gets killed, this film asks us to consider how tough that situation is on the operator. Umm, yeah, but it was even tougher on the girl. It's a little like when the judges on a reality show talk about how hard it is for them to send someone home and end their time in the competition. Yeah, the judges get paid either way, plus it's probably a little harder on the average people getting sent home.
On top of all that, the reason that is given for WHY the killer here abducts girls (and honestly, there didn't need to be one, at least past the obvious ones) comes dangerously close to justifying his sick behavior. That's a very dangerous road for a screenwriter to travel down.
I wonder if C-level actors who play serial killers have trouble in future casting sessions. Like casting directors want to hire them, but then somewhere in the back of their minds, they get this rapey murdery vibe off of them, but they're not sure why. Or maybe they get typecast, like if they do such a good job playing a killer, it gets easier to get those roles in the future, and then after a while, that's all the work they get offered.
Also starring Halle Berry (last seen in "New Year's Eve"), Abigail Breslin (last heard in "Rango"), Morris Chestnut (last seen in "Identity Thief"), Michael Eklund, Evie Thompson, Roma Maffia, Jose Zuniga,
RATING: 4 out of 10 paint cans
No comments:
Post a Comment