At Tribeca: The Caller

The Caller
Dir. Richard Ledes
Reviewed by Cullen Gallagher

The Caller thinks that by virtue of leaving certain plot elements and character motivations unexplained that it will become “mysterious.” Instead, the film becomes a lame exercise in sub-par genre clichés, devoid of any sense of intrigue or suspense in either its story or characters. Frank Langella, an executive at an energy corporation, sends out a mass email revealing his company’s corrupt policies in South America (including fabricated statistics and several murdered persons). Well aware that his partners have hired a hit man to knock him off, Langella hires private detective Elliott Gould. The motivation behind such a decision, however, is not so clear, as he doesn’t want Gould to protect him. Exactly what Langella is up to isn’t revealed until the final moments of the movie, and it’s definitely not worth the wait to find out.

Most of the problems lie in the film’s script, co-written by Alain Didier-Weill and Richard Ledes (also the film’s director). The dialogue is consistently vague and uninteresting, and when it attempts to be flashy it either resorts to trite euphemisms (“buy some art” refers to hiring a contract killer) or uninspired references to classic noir (“You’re setting me up to be the patsy, the fall guy”—note how they have to explain what a “patsy” is within the same sentence). Frank Langella and Elliott Gould, normally strong performers, are held back by the weak script and hardly compensate for its deficiencies. Other objectionables: the poorly arranged “hit”; Langella’s friendship to a little girl that allows for excessively simplistic statements (“Do they want to teach you a lesson?” the girl asks about Langella’s perilous situation); and particularly a reoccurring flashback to WWII-era France upon which the flimsy plot pivots.

Sunday, April 27 at 4:30pm; Wed, April 30 at 6pm; Friday, May 2 at 5:15pm; Sunday, May 4 at 5:30pm