Reviews

"The Listener" is a very very quiet film. The story of a woman who works as a telephone counsellor naturally holds the material for various psychological thrillers. But that's not the case here, even though one or the other caller certainly carries the potential for dangerous encounters. Beth, her working name, is very unagitated and sensitive with her customers, tends to block personal questions and even hangs up when the conversation suddenly starts to drift towards phone sex. But even the average caller demands all of Beth's attention, a fact that we learn in the course of the film is what Beth likes most about this job. In general, despite her detached attitude towards personal issues, we slowly learn more and more of her story as well.

Director Steve Buscemi, in front of the camera more specialized in gangster roles or losers, shows himself here from a completely different side, takes himself as a director very back and leaves his great actress of Beth, Tessa Thompson, all the space she needs. The camera glides unobtrusively with her through the rooms, while the voices of the callers more or less get to her and demand a lot from her. More and more she feels lured out of her reserve in the course of the evening and her protective wall crumbles visibly.

Tessa Thompson, who is also one of the producers of the film, is in full control of her role and that is what keeps the viewer tuning in. Her acting leaves enough questions unanswered to make this so uncharacteristically American film worth our attention until the last minute.

The film is done in rich warm tones, we feel comfortable here with Beth, the camera doesn't leave the house until the very end. We experience a night with Beth on the phone, all callers remain voices, except for her only her dog is present. The camera keeps finding new positions to hold our attention in this very limited setting. Despite this simple situation, the film never gets boring, each caller is exciting because, like Beth, we have no idea what his/her motive is for calling. Nevertheless, there is a great sense of release at the end when Beth finally walks her dog at the end of her shift and we can take a breath with her and look at the city in the morning haze.

The reason I recorded the film when it played on an early afternoon weekday, was the plethora of famous names involved. Halfway through the film my wife complained feeling embarrassed about the way the women have been portrayed, with the exception of Jessica Biel, who was the only one who took her role serious and delivered the best acting in this film. All other females swooned the moment Gerald Butler came into sight and never stopped no matter how he treated them. They must have stepped out of a screenwriters wet dream.

The children are almost a relief, as they play what they are. Of course, you also get the usual unbelievable "grown-up talks" of them once in a while, In German this kind of statements by kids is called "altklug," don't know if "precocious" describes it as well. One thing Hollywood very seldom gets right is convincing kids talk.

Gerald Butler is completely unconvincing as a has-been soccer ace still in love with his ex-wife but bedding every hot mother he meets through his coaching a soccer kids team. Beside the Biel character, everyone acts as still going to high school, including Dennis Quaid, whose role lies completely undefined between harmless jerk and sinister maniac, we never learn where his money comes from or what he really wants from Butler. The same goes for the whole film, the characters are mostly cardboard-thin, but still we get the heartbroken Butler, and it takes Jessica Biel all she has got as an actress to make us believe that she will take him back after all.

I just read from another reviewer that he did not want them to get together again and I completely agree with him, me too! My wife and I hoped so much that Jessica Biel's character will be strong enough to keep her distance, but no, the screenplay asked for a happy end, which we considered an unhappy end!