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An unusual although imcomplete thriller "The Night Listener"
offers Robin Williams to give one of his best and understated
performances in some time. Williams plays writer and radio
host Gabriel Noone. Noone's life has fallen apart; his long
time lover Jess (Bobby Cannavale) has left him and he finds
himself slipping deeper into depression. When Gabriel is
asked to read an unpublished autobiographical manuscript
by a 14 year old boy named Peter (Rory Culkin) with AIDS
that focuses on his systematic abuse by his parents, Gabriel
finds himself drawn into Peter's world. Peter's tale and
plight with fighting the disease ravaging his body pulls
Gabriel in almost like a concerned surrogate parent. There's
only one problem-Gabriel has never met Peter or his adoptive
mother Donna (Toni Collette) but only spoken with both of
them on the phone. Gabriel feels the need to meet Peter
and verify the existence of a boy that he has grown close
to but never actually seen. ***
As good as Williams and Collette are in their roles,
"The Night Listener" feels curiously unfinished. Author
Armistead Maupin ("Tales of the City") adapts his novel
but leaves it curiously emaciated; the bare bones story
doesn't give us enough details about Gabriel's life wanting
to move forward into the mystery at the heart of the film.
While that is admirable Gabriel's fascination with Peter
would be better understood if we understood Gabriel and
his world better. "The Night Listener" is a rare example
of a thriller that could have used additional detail and
expanding on the relationships at the heart of the story-Gabriel's
relationship with Jess, Donna but most importantly Peter
would have given the film the additional emotional weight
to make us understand Gabriel's obsession in finding out
the truth. That isn't to suggest that "The Night Listener"
isn't well crafted-director Patrick Stettner captures the
mood of the piece wonderfully and sketches the mystery with
austere shades of gray, blue and black mixing in a muted
color scheme that compliments this dark and troubling drama.
The cinematography by Lisa Rinzler likewise compliments
Strettner's direction of the actors with its moody shooting
scheme. It's just that the film hints at more complexity
and layers to the story than it presents. ---
Image & Sound:
"The Night Listener" looks quite good with the transfer
capturing the bare look of Wisconsin and New York with solid
detail. The film's muted color scheme arrives with fine
detail and nice clarity on DVD. Although the images are
a bit murky in some of the darker scenes the overall look
of the DVD compliments the material. The audio sounds quite
nice with a primarily dialogue driven 5.1 mix and occasional
use of the surround speakers to fill in the detail of the
environment of "The Night Listener". ---
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