Once
you get past the unattractive Harpo Marx hairdo sported by Halle Berry
in “The Call” the first 80 minutes of this 98 film presents an
interesting thriller before it becomes a cliche of previous thrillers.
At that point it falls apart leaving more questions than answers but you
really don’t want to waste time trying to figure out what just
happened.

The
screenplay by Richard D’Ovidio sets up the story of 911 star operator
Jordan (Halle Berry)  who makes a mistake and feels she is responsible
for the death of a young kidnapped victim. Instead of continuing as an
operator she now trains newcomers to the 911 center, known as ‘The Hive’
due to all the buzzing continuously going on of dispatchers answering
phones with “911, what is your emergency?” and then following through to
help solve them all from attempted suicides to a bat flying around in
someone’s house.  Jordan has a handsome police officer boyfriend, Paul
Phillips, (Morris Chestnut) and with the help of some pills seems to
have recovered from her previous experience only to once again be put in
the same position. One of things she keeps telling the trainees is to
never make promises to people on the other end of the line.

Casey
Wilson (Abigail Breslin) has been kidnapped in a mall garage by Michael
Foster (Michael Eklund) who carries on in the Norman Bates, Hannibal
Lecter and/or “Buffalo Bill” disturbed mode of killer. He puts her in
the trunk of his car and using a cell phone, (What did thrillers use
before cell phones?), she calls 911 and when the operator seems to be
fumbling Jordan takes over. In most thrillers logic has to be parked at
the door before the movie starts and this is no different but the
various ways in which Jordan advises Casey and the sadistic actions of
Michael as he travels Los Angeles highways and byways makes for gripping
times in the film before it takes a wrong turn and makes the women
action heroines.

Berry
does her usual efficient job while Breslin takes a huge step into being
ready for adult roles . Eklund goes from a serious, sadistic killer to,
at times, the script making him an object of ridicule. Michael
Imperioli as an innocent victim brings an element of surprise as does
Jose Zuniga.  The direction by Brad Anderson is more or less pedestrian
while the music by John Debney plays with the emotions.

“The
Call” is rated R with gratuitous violence, sex and language but being a
good thriller the first 80 minutes before going off the tracks and
falling into the mundane.