Phone Booth (2003)

Written by CaseyReese on February 5, 2023

Stu's an unlikable guy. He treats people poorly. He plays tit-for-tat. He lies, a lot. He's a publicist and a hustler. His life is about taking as much money from people as he can manage, unless they're an inconvience, when he'll shove money at them to make them go away.

Stu lives his life on the phone; not that he wants anyone to know it. He tells people he's in a meeting in an expensive conference room, or that he's just dined with some bigwigs, because that's who Stu is. He's full of it, and no one that he talks to will ever know the difference. Because no one can see him when he's on the phone.

Or, so he thinks.

It turns out that there are a few people who know even more about phones than Stu. Some people know, for instance, that calls can be rerouted, lines can be encrypted, and phones can be located and tapped. There are even a few people who like to do those things, and one of them calls Stu at the phone booth he uses when he doesn't want his calls logged.

There are, of course, worse people than Stu in this town. And Stu knows it. He knows that he's better than the pimps and hookers and grifters that live on the block with his favorite phone booth because, hey, he dresses better than them. But Stu can't see how the Caller dresses, because the Caller is on the phone too. This puts Stu at the same disadvantage he uses against everyone else.

And fancy duds or not, the Caller proves to be even smoother than Stu. He's also a lot more disturbed. He knows exactly what Stu's been up to, and he's about to punish him for it. He's going to trap Stu on the phone he's lived his live through, and he's going to heckle, coerce, and torment him. The Caller thinks it's all for a good cause, but you won't.

Phone Booth is a tense, claustrophobic, and chilling film. The script is tight. The setting is limited to a phone booth and the few yards surrounding it. Nothing is in this film that doesn't need to be there.

And even if you'd rather not meet most of them, the characters are believable, and the actors handle their roles well. The Caller is voiced by Kiefer Sutherland in a remarkably expressive, menacing, and ironic manner. Forest Whitaker nicely portrays the police negotiator, who's calm, likable, and much smarter than his colleagues think. And although Stu may be a callous jackass, Colin Farrell allows us to sympathize with him, and he manages to move easily from an oblivious narcissist to a frightened, cornered man – who learns that he's almost as concerned about the people surrounding the phone booth as the one trapped inside it – without breaking character.