Film Friday: Phone Booth (2002)

If I told you that a movie takes place entirely within a phone booth, you’d probably wonder how interesting that could be. Well, with only minor exceptions, the movie Phone Booth takes place entirely within a phone booth and the street surrounding the booth. And as unlikely as it sounds, this movie is gripping! It’s also a rather conservative film.

** spoiler alert **

Phone Booth is the story of uber-jerk Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell), a small time New York City publicist. He lies to his clients, tricks newspapers into publishing stories about his clients, flirts with having an affair and generally mistreats everyone in his life. Every day at the same time, he uses a phone booth to place a call to the woman he’s flirting with, so his wife doesn’t see a cell phone record. On this particular day, Stu receives a call when he steps into the booth. The call is from an unknown man (Kiefer Sutherland) who argues with Stu and seems to know everything about him. As Stu is about to hang up, the caller tells Stu that he has a rifle pointed at the phone booth and that if Stu leaves the booth, he will be killed. Stu must then deal with a series of challenges including the police.

Phone Booth is a fascinating film precisely because of the difficulty in getting a film like this to work. You have limited visuals you can offer the audience because the film is confined to a very small set. You need the perfect actors because they have to carry the plot with little help from modern storytelling techniques. There is no CGI, no high speed chases, and only one man is in danger. Not to mention, you need to come up with a reason why this film stays confined to the phone booth and why the conflict you will use to keep the audience hooked must play out there.

In fact, the idea of a film taking place entirely within a phone booth was originally pitched by writer Larry Cohen to Alfred Hitchcock in the 1960s. Hitchcock liked the idea, but he and Cohen couldn’t come up with a reason why the story would stay confined to the phone booth. Thirty years later, Cohen came up with the right idea: a sniper. What Cohen did was invent a character, the caller, who wanted to toy with Stu. Making him a sniper justified keeping the story in the phone booth. As an interesting aside, this film ultimately had its release date pushed back because of the DC Sniper.

But more importantly than coming up with the sniper, Cohen brilliantly gave the character a truly twisted motivation. Specifically, the caller sees himself as the good guy, and he thinks his calling (pun intended) is to get Stu to admit the lies he’s been telling himself and others, which the caller thinks will make Stu a better man.

This is a fascinating motive if you think about it. On the one hand, the caller is right. He wants Stu to be a better man, and if Stu stops lying he would be. This in turn would make everyone happier and better off in Stu’s world. Thus, in many ways, this is an admirable goal, and you could easily see this being an uplifting movie about a priest or therapist or friend who struggles to teach this to Stu. BUT, the way the caller chooses to go about this goal ultimately makes him a sadistic and evil villain. This makes the character very interesting.

At the same time, this desire to cure Stu gives Farrell a lot to work with. Farrell is forced to admit to his wife that he is flirting with another woman. He’s forced to admit that he’s been misleading his intern. And ultimately, he’s forced to admit that his self-image isn’t what he projects. And in the process, Stu grows tremendously as a character, with a truly cathartic moment coming when he finally decides to free himself of the caller’s trap. This is great writing. But even more so, this is great acting. I’m not sure another actor could have pulled this off. Farrell plays Stu so odiously at first, but somehow keeps you from hating him. I attribute this entirely to the likeability Farrell projects onto the screen. He then makes every moment believable as Stu struggles with staying in the phone booth as the outside world (including Police Captain Ramey (Forest Whitaker)) tries to get him out. And finally, he is absolutely convincing as someone who has an epiphany in the midst of what appears to be a breakdown. Farrell proves beyond any doubt that he is a top actor in this film and he makes this film work.

There’s also an interesting political undercurrent here, though the film is in no way political. This is one of those films which I would describe as premised on conservative values even as it does not espouse conservatism. For example, the things Stu has done “wrong” align strongly with traditional moral beliefs. Lying is wrong (something liberals excuse if the motive is a good one). Infidelity is wrong, but even more so, flirting with infidelity is wrong. This goes against the liberal ideas of no-fault relationships, that men naturally stray, and that we should not judge people’s behavior. When Stuart breaks down, we are then introduced to the idea of shame, another traditional belief liberals now reject. We are shown through the sniper that just because you have good motives doesn’t excuse your bad deeds. This flies in the face of much of liberalism which says force is justified to make people better. Finally, we are shown the idea of self-help. Indeed, Stu does not rely on the cops to save him, he helps him self and finds the only true solution. This again goes against the liberal idea that the individual is powerless to help themselves and must rely on government experts to save them. I’m not saying these points are intentional made as a political statement, but they are how the story operates and the unconscious message it sends.

In the end, this is a fascinating, gripping film. This film shows that all the things Hollywood thinks you need, e.g. CGI, chase scenes, shootouts at touristy locations, etc., aren’t necessary. All it really takes is solid writing. I highly recommend this film.