The Call

It’s a demanding job in LA’s 911 call centre, trying to stay detached while every day runs the whole gamut from time-wasting cranks to real human tragedies. Experienced operator Halle Berry loses it when she feels she could have done more to prevent the brutal murder of a teenage girl. But her shot at redemption arrives swiftly when the same killer kidnaps a fresh victim (Abigail Breslin), who manages to call the emergency services from inside the boot of a moving vehicle. Since the audience shares Berry’s sense of anguished powerlessness, this is highly effective as suspense and milked effectively by astute indie mainstay Brad Anderson (‘The Machinist’, ‘Transsiberian’) during a gripping extended chase. Yet just when the movie has us in its grasp, the script falls to pieces and turns into a crass female-in-peril button-pusher whose shameless psycho-killer clichés insult the intelligence.