When veteran 911 operator Jordan (Halle Berry) takes a life-altering call from a teenage girl (Abigail Breslin) who has just been abducted, she realises that she must confront a killer from her past in order to save the girl's life.
The Call begins well, with impressive suspense and jump-in-my-seat moments, but the juvenile script's cheesy plot elements, the over-acted exposition and inexperienced directing are not the only things that let the film down. No, the one-star rating is the result of a collective effort — everything from script to post-production and even Berry's hair stylist are to blame for this embarrassment of a film.
I was invested at first. I thought it all quite clever until it happened and the whole cinema let out an unforgiving groan of 'are you kidding me?' From that point on, it was like the director had actively gone out of his way to make this a terrible experience, while consistently insulting the audience's intelligence.
A truly unique experience in the most disappointing way, The Call may be equalled only by Berry's turn in Catwoman. At least that time, the wardrobe department got it right.
1/5
The Call is in cinemas now.
