CELLULAR

“I can't sit around and wait for the telephone to ring.” – Tony Curtis

I rather dislike talking on the telephone. More so on the mobile phone (“cellular phone” for our American cousins). I much prefer to talk to people face to face and interact with them using more than verbal language, and being able to interpret their meaning not only form their words, but from their gestures, facial expressions and body language. Having said all of that, I am very reliant on the telephone for my work, where I see it as tool (and to a lesser extent I rely on the phone for communicating with family). Yes, I do have a mobile phone and I do use it, but not as much as many other people do – at least no so much for making telephone calls on, as today’s mobile phones can do so much more than making telephone calls (I bet there are some that make coffee too!).

Now what has all of that got to do with Movie Monday, you may ask. Well, last weekend we watched the 2004 David R. Ellis film “Cellular”. The movie is a B-grade thriller, but very entertaining and unpretentious. As well as being gripping and tense it also had a good injection of humour that relieved some of the tension, and broached a serious topic (I won’t spoil it for you, in case you wish to watch it). The film stars Kim Basinger who does a good job of being the terrorised but gutsy biology teacher and mum whose life is not only turned upside down, but whose life and that of her family is being threatened in what appears to be a senseless abduction. Chris Evans does a good job of playing the young ingénu who has to help the hapless woman.

The plot centres on Ryan (Evans), a selfish young man, who receives a call on his mobile phone from Jessica (Basinger), a woman who says she's been kidnapped, and knows she will be killed soon, along with her husband and son who the kidnappers have captured next. The communication used is a broken phone that the woman uses to call someone at random. Ryan is the one and after becoming convinced of the woman’s sincerity he decides to help her.

The film is based on a story by Larry Cohen, who also wrote the 2002 film “Phone Booth”, once again on a similar theme, with the telephone in a phone booth being central to the plot. You will enjoy this lightweight film if you like thrillers, although there s considerable violence in this film – more implicit than explicit.

The film highlights the extent on which we rely on technology not only for our everyday communication, but also in an emergency (not to mention the coffee-making!).