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Phone Booth

Reviewed by Garry Maddox
May 22 2003

Directed by Joel Schumacher
Written by Larry Cohen
Rated M
Cinemas everywhere

Pay attention, up the back. This term's assignment is for all the aspiring screenwriters and directors - how can we make a feature film about someone stuck in a tiny confined space?

We could try a small room like David Fincher did with Panic Room. Or a boat like Hitchcock did with Lifeboat and Phil Noyce did with Dead Calm.

But let's go for something even more restrictive. There's a guy in a phone box. Let's make a movie.

The premise for Phone Booth sounds like the sort of technical challenge that Hitchcock loved. One character in a glass box is more like a Beckett play, called Waiting for the Telstra Repairman, than a film. The dramatic limitations seem endless: how do you get action and suspense into the story? How can you bring in other characters? How do you put your victim under pressure then raise the stakes?

As Phone Booth was shopped around in Hollywood, you can imagine the view of studio executives: "If George Lucas can create all these digital galaxies, why is this guy in a phone booth? Can he change into Superman? Does he time-travel like Dr Who?"

No wonder it took screenwriter Larry Cohen 20 years to find a solution.

He saw the film as a thriller set in New York. He put a sniper in a window. Had someone answer the phone out of instinct. Then had the sniper threaten to shoot his victim if he hangs up.

The fall guy is fast-talking publicist Stu Shepard, played with convincing oiliness by Colin Farrell, best known these days for Minority Report and The Recruit.

When Phone Booth was shot, he was virtually unknown in Hollywood. But two delays in the film's release - first because of the September 11 terrorist attacks then the Washington sniper killings - have seen Farrell become a star attraction.

The film opens with Stu hustling clients and magazine editors alike before slipping into the phone box and slipping off his wedding ring. He plans to invite an actress client, played by Katie Holmes from Dawson's Creek, for a drink.

The sniper, voiced by Kiefer Sutherland, gets in first, revealing that he knows a lot more about Stu's life than he'd find on directory assistance. He knows Stu is morally compromised. And he wants him to renounce his sins.

The phone box becomes a prison, a confessional and potentially a coffin.

Joining the drama unfolding around the police lines are a troubled cop (Forest Whitaker) and Stu's astonished wife (Radha Mitchell).

The veteran director Joel Schumacher plays with the notion of heroes and villains in Phone Booth - having a victim as likeable as an HIH executive and a God-like sniper who wants to clean up an immoral world.

At one stage, the film was to have been directed by James Cameron, of the Terminator movies and Titanic fame. Will Smith and Jim Carrey were down to star in different incarnations.

When the film fell to Schumacher, best known for two Batman films, The Client and Falling Down, he made some smart decisions.

The main one was casting Farrell. His performance, as Stu disintegrates under pressure, lifts Phone Booth. So do some clever comic touches, such as the sniper getting Stu to introduce his wife to his would-be girlfriend across the police lines.

Having the actors improvise chunks of dialogue mostly works as well.

For a film that cost phone change in Hollywood terms - just $US1.2 million - Phone Booth is a slick and entertaining piece of work.

A film school lesson in less than 90 minutes.




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