The Night Listener
Starring: Robin Williams, Toni Collette, Rory Culkin
Director: Patrick Stettner
Genre: Drama / Mystery / Thriller
Rated: Rated R for language and some disquieting sexual content.
Plot: In the midst of his crumbling relationship, a radio show host begins speaking to his biggest fan, a young boy, via the telephone. But when questions about the boy’s identity come up, the host’s life is thrown into chaos.
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My Review: The Night Listener is “inspired by true events” and interestingly these “true events” revolve around questionably true events themselves. What you get from The Night Listener is a brief (81 minutes) but very enjoyable thriller starring a reserved Robin Williams and impressive Toni Collette. There isn’t a whole lot to the story and it moves at a slow pace, but I found it to be a great alternative from a lot of the usual movies that I’ve been watching recently. The story behind The Night Listener feels like something you could expect to find on Law & Order SVU with the mystery swirling around the young focus of interest. I hadn’t read the book, but if you have I’ve heard that you’ll find a lot of parts skimmed over in this adaptation. That’s surprising considering there seemed to be plenty of free time available. What they did keep in the movie made for plenty of creepy moments and curious questions that kept me going until the end.

Robin Williams has really shifted from where he was in acting 10-20 years ago. These days you get him in a lot more serious, darker roles (Insomnia, One Hour Photo, The Final Cut) where he does very well. Then he’ll stray back into trying to be funny (RV, License to Wed) and he fails miserably. I even had to turn off Letterman the other month when he was on there doing his voices. The man isn’t funny anymore, so please, stop. But that’s okay because he’s found another great outlet for his acting. I really enjoyed him in this role as the film’s convincing and vulnerable protagonist. Toni Collette also adds a lot to the short list of cast members with her shrouded and darkened role. I haven’t seen much of Collette these days and performances like this highlight why we should see more of her. Rory Culkin shows up here, but is limited by the storyline so you won’t see much of him.

Overall I thought this was a great movie. I wasn’t too sure what to expect going in and actually thought I came out with a good deal. If you’re a mystery fan and can enjoy slower paced movies that focus more on characters than bullets whizzing by and car chase scenes then I think The Night Listener is worth a viewing.

Rating: 4/5 stars
High Point: Very suspenseful
Low Point: Slow at times

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