| TELEPHONE THING : David R Ellis's Cellular [7/10] |
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| Monday, 07 March 2005 | |
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Though ostensibly a gimmicky, disposable B-movie thriller, Cellular turns out to be one of 2004's more interesting mainstream releases - and not just because of the breathtaking cameo by little-known Rick Hoffman as a car-jacked, blaringly obnoxious, motormouthed character identified only as "Lawyer." Stealing the picture in no uncertain terms from stars Kim Basinger (kidnapped schoolteacher), Chris Evans (the hunky young dude she randomly calls for aid), William H Macy (weirdo cop) and Jason Statham (monosyllabic kidnapper), Hoffman's impact on the movie is wildly disproportionate to his abbreviated screen time. We've seldom seen the like since his namesake Philip Seymour Hoffman so effortlessly dominated The Talented Mr Ripley. And it's a howler of enormous proportions that director Ellis didn't somehow manage to get "Lawyer" back in the action for the picture's climax. But despite the mixed critical response to the picture (mirrored in its ho-hum box-office performance on both sides of the Atlantic), Hoffman's turn was noted by many reviewers - so we should hopefully be seeing much more of this startling comic talent in future. But back to Cellular. The breathless script is by Chris Morgan, from a story by living-legend B-movie auteur Larry Cohen - writer-director of bona-fide cult classics like It's Alive (1974), God Told Me To aka Demon (1976) and Q the Winged Serpent (1982) . Though Cohen hasn't directed a fiction feature since 1996's Original Gangstas, he's arguably as prominent right now as he has been at any time since his mid-70s heyday, having sold a handful of ‘spec' (unsolicited) scripts for upwards of $350,000 in the last seven years - including 2002's surprise hit Phone Booth. Cellular is the second of an unofficial trilogy of telephone-inspired thrillers - its spotty box-office may mean we have a long wait for the third, Message Deleted, which reportedly revolves around an answering-machine (Cohen should perhaps check out Takashi Miike's well-received One Missed Call from last year.) In fact, tracing the roots of Cohen's recent ‘phone fixation is rather like being patched into a conference-call involving a daunting array of Hollywood names, from Alfred Hitchcock and Barbara Stanwyck to Agnes Moorehead and Bernard Herrmann (click here and here for the relevant articles). And it certainly gives Cellular rather more in the way of pedigree than its sun-drenched, TV-bright surface might suggest to the casual observer. The scriptwriter, director (and game cast) keep the enterprise moving with sufficient speed to distract the viewer from pondering the plot-holes and implausibilities, and while Ellis may not be an Alfred Hitchcock he's clearly a cut or two above Joel Schumacher when it comes to socking over fast-paced suspense thrills. Los Angeles-based critics have been quick to pounce on the liberties taken with the city's geography - but Cellular isn't any more drastic an offender than, say, Michael Mann's similarly-titled Collateral (as elucidated by Los Angeles Plays Itself's Thom Andersen in his excellent CinemaScope article). And while Collateral gussied up Stuart Beattie's sub-B-movie script with incongruously heavyweight direction, editing, cinematography and score, Ellis - clearly nowhere near Mann's league as a cinematic artist - sensibly eschews any kind of fancy-dan posturing. Both pictures are, fundamentally, nonsensical affairs, but Cellular has the wit to turn this daftness to its advantage via well-judged humour, rather than try to hide behind an elaborate sheen of tech-noir cool. Perhaps Beattie should give Larry Cohen a call... Neil Young 6th March, 2005 CELLULAR : [7/10] : USA 2004 : David R Ellis : 93 mins seen on DVD at home in Sunderland (UK), 28th February 2005 |
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