The Call (2013)

Genre : Thriller/Misdaad
Country : USA

Cast :
Halle Berry : Jordan Turner
Abigail Breslin : Casey Welson
Michael Eklund: Michael Foster

Director :
Brad Anderson

Summary
Jordan Turner is an experienced 911 operator but when she makes an error in judgment and a call ends badly, Jordan is rattled and unsure if she can continue. But then teenager Casey Welson is abducted in the back of a man's car and calls 911. And Jordan is the one called upon to use all of her experience, insights and quick thinking to help Casey escape, and not just to save Casey, but to make sure the man is brought to justice.

My opinion

"And don't make promises... cause you know you can't keep'em."

An intense thriller that had my complete attention almost to the end . The basic idea is quite original. A kidnapped teenager, Casey (Abigail Breslin) , calls 911 while being kidnapped out of the trunk of a car. The person at the call center who tries to help her through is Jordan ( Halle Berry ) . Six months earlier, she had a traumatic experience with a bad interpretation of a critical situation , which caused the death of another teen girl.

Everything a decent thriller needs is in this movie . But unfortunately also the well-known cliches and improbabilities which quickly get on my nerves . Halle B. acts in a convincing way and shows in a realistic way how nerve-wracking it is to work at a 911 call center. You can feel the pressure and stress throughout the complete movie . The first thing I was annoyed about was the speed at which she got over her panic attack and had control over the situation. She seems to be a tough lady when it comes to emotions.

Breslin also played very convincingly the victim . A teenager who’s completely in a panic and starts to cry hysterically, but in the end, thanks to the coolness of the operator, can calm down . The second victim joining her in the trunk isn’t that cold-blooded and starts to shout like an adolescent. Second point of annoyance .
Eklund is the super sick and deranged serial killer Michael Foster who apparently has an intense grief over his sister death. He looks as crazy as in " The Divide " .

A thriller fails in my eyes when there are multiple situations where my response sounds like : "How stupid can you be... " . And there were enough situations like that . Why not keep a pot of paint ready to hurl it in his face as soon as he opens the trunk ? I would have rammed that Screwdriver up his throat as soon as he leaned over me . And apparently he wasn’t that bright after all, leaving such material in his trunk after several. The old man at the gas station was pretty stupid to use a utility knife to attack Foster. Couldn’t Casey do more effort in trying to crawl out of the trunk while Foster was busy ? Who couldn’t predict the cellphone would slip out of her hand? Why not get the mobile phone first , make a phone call and then go exploring ? Why do we always get that situation where the psychopath is first beaten , and then all of a sudden appears behind the victims ? I would definitely smash the guy’s brains with a fire extinguisher or so. I know this extremely important to keep it exciting and so the protagonist may end up as heroine.
The end was a real anti-climax and totally unbelievable . Casey shows up out of the blue and the police leaves it that way without starting an investigation ? I'd never ever sleep again. Before you know it that sick bastard pops up besides my bed again !