Fridae

The last time I checked, I'm not a potato queen.

However, in the case of Colin Farrell, I will gladly make an exception.

When I first laid eyes on the Irish-born hunk in Minority Report (2002), I fell into a swoon and had to be revived by slaps across the face from my not-too-amused partner. Since then, I have been following the movie career of Hollywood's latest bad boy with the closest of attention.

Directed by Joel Schumacher, aka the person responsible for putting an end to the Batman franchise with the dreadful Batman Forever (1995), Phone Booth is a riveting thriller which takes place in a single day and centers around the last working phone booth in Manhattan. More importantly, it features Colin Farrell in the lead role of Stu Shepard (incidentally, a role that scared off Mel Gibson, Will Smith, Brad Pitt and Jim Carrey), a character who struts down the streets of Manhattan with as much swagger as John Travolta did in Saturday Night Fever (1977).

Abhorrently arrogant, Stu is a sleazebag publicist who dresses in flashy Italian suits, lies to clients and gossip columnists, abuses his fawning assistant Adam (Keith Nobbs) and yaks away on his cell-phones like a frantic telemarketer. As part of his morning routine, Stu stops by the phone booth every morning to call clueless starlet Pamela (Katie Holmes) (lucky girl!) - but not before he removes his wedding ring (unlucky wife!).

However, on that particular morning, the phone rings after his conversation with Pamela and Stu picks it up. Sounding like a late-night horror movie voice-over, the person on the other line (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland) turns out to be a sniper with a God complex. As with most onscreen psychos, this busybody of a sniper seems to know all of Stu's secrets and pronounces Stu guilty of "inhumanity to our fellow men" and the "sin of spin".

Having previously picked off a pedophile pornographer and a corrupt CEO, one wonders why the sniper has set his sights on Stu (pardon the pun). For if Stu's litany of "sins" (which includes ego-massaging, truth-twisting and committing mental adultery) is reason enough for him to be singled out, then everyone else, except maybe the Pope, would have long been used for target practice.

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Things take a turn for the worse when a pimp and his gang of mean-looking prostitutes with Missy Elliot's penchant for colourful street language demand to use the phone booth. When the sicko sniper takes down the pimp, Stu finds himself at the center of a media frenzy and surrounded by trigger-happy cops who assumed that he was responsible for the pimp's demise.
With the phone booth now turned into a confession booth, the pressure on the trapped Stu mounts when both women in his life turn up at the scene: his wife (Radha Mitchell) and his "fling" Pamela whose badly applied mascara caused her to resemble a startled raccoon.

To his credit, director Joel Schumacher successfully builds up and sustains the tension throughout the movie's entire 82 minutes. It also helps that Schumacher cleverly uses multi-screen composition to depict the characters on the end of the phone conversations with Stu as well as the events happening around Stu.

However, Phone Booth is let down by Larry Cohen's leaky plot which is punctured with numerous improbable "whys". For instance, why didn't the cops just block the phone booth from the sniper's view and thus save Stu? Why should Stu need to use the phone booth when as a publicist, he could easily convince his wife that Pamela is his client? And why would a pimp and his harem of whores still need to use a phone booth in this day and age when almost everyone else has a cell phone?

Fortunately, the logic impaired plot is redeemed by Colin Farrell who delivers his best performance yet. Featured in nearly every screen shot, the roguish actor portrays a wide range of emotions from initial bravado to creeping fear, from undignified begging to whimpering humiliation. In the climatic breakdown where Farrell launches into a self-loathing confession with the public as audience, many a suppressed sniffle could be heard throughout the theatre.

Thus despite its flaws and the cop-out ending (oh please, I could see it coming a mile away), Phone Booth is still a movie well worth watching - especially if you are a fan of the delectable Colin Farrell and more so, if you, like yours truly, simply cannot resist Farrell looking oh-so-vulnerable while sweating up a storm.