Farrell is reason enough not to hang up on 'Phone Booth'

Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell) isn't what you'd call a prince among men. He's shallow. He's married to blond, pristine Kelly (Radha Mitchell) but has a thing for dewy Pam (Katie Holmes). He strings people along and, yes, even lies. He puts the sin in insincerity.

MOVIE REVIEW

PHONE BOOTH

DIRECTOR: Joel Schumacher

CAST: Colin Farrell, Forest Whitaker, Radha Mitchell, Katie Holmes

RUNNING TIME: 81 minutes

RATING: R for language and some violence

WHERE: Alderwood 7, Cinema 17, Crossroads, East Valley, Everett 9, Factoria, Galleria 11, Gateway 8, Issaquah 9, Kirkland Parkplace, Lewis & Clark, Longston Place 14, Marysville Cinema, Monroe 12, Mountlake 9, Neptune, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center, Woodinville 12

GRADE: B -

And 20 minutes after meeting Stu, your head starts to hurt for the guy.

There he was, just sailing along -- only one of hundreds of smarmy yet likable PR people with self-important clients in New York, barking orders to his unpaid assistant -- when answering a call at a pay phone changes it all. Not to put too fine a point on it, but things go from bad to worse.

The creepy caller (who sounds like a cross between Hal 9000, Hannibal Lecter and Vincent Price) on the other end of the line is somewhere behind one of the hundreds of windows with a view of the phone booth and has a rifle aimed at Stu. If Stu hangs up or doesn't follow orders, he dies. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a sniper situation, complete with hysteria and law enforcement wrangling (Forest Whitaker is wasted on the role of Captain Ramey, the wounded-but-wise cop).

"Phone Booth," by the way, initially was meant to be released last year, but the real-life sniper situation had 20th Century Fox shelving the movie for a while (a good idea).

But the movie isn't a social commentary about violence. Director Joel Schumacher plays with film speed and uses a chaotic collage of cell-phone chatter and split-screens to show the disconnect and isolation caused by our rabid use of telecommunication technology. We're more accessible than ever, but we've never been more out of touch. And Stu, the caller points out, is out of touch.

Farrell is the perfect slick, fast-talking PR guy. The character is constantly putting a spin on every situation but really believes what he's saying, and Farrell lends credibility to this guy's verbal tap-dancing. Watching him squirm, sweat and shout in the phone booth for almost the entire movie also makes this flawed film worth watching.

Gripping in parts, tedious in others, the film works best when the action is brisk -- there are points in "Phone Booth" where the plot lags, and that's really saying something given how short the movie is. The second major flaw lies in the story: Stu really isn't all that bad. A jerk yes, a deceitful jackass, absolutely, but not nasty enough to be chosen as a target for the caller, who is some sort of genius moral avenger. These problems lead to a flaccid ending -- too simple for what's essentially a pretty suspenseful movie.

P-I reporter D. Parvaz can be reached at 206-448-8095 or dparvaz@seattlepi.com