Caffeinated Clint
Halle Berry offers up the muscle in WWE Films’ latest release, a non Wrestler-headlined thriller that rejigs the old “Play Misty for Me”/”Talk Radio” template and interlaces it with the kind of heavy-volumed teen-friendly thrill sequences most of the successful popcorn thrillers embody.
Halle Berry, in one of her better parts in a while (her career really dipped after that Oscar Win, ay!?), plays the 911 operator who takes a call from a teenage girl (an all-grown-up Abigail Breslin, of “Little Miss Sunshine” fame), who claims she’s been abducted and has been plonked in the boot of a moving vehicle.
There’s a personal plight at hand for the emergency operator, though. Berry’s had a run-in with the villain before, but was unable to help the girl on the other end of the line. Needless to say, she’s not hanging up this time until the caller’s safe.
script doesn’t feature anything in the way of newness, but what it does do is entertain. It helps that there’s a strong anchoring turn by Berry, whose ably supported by the likes of the abovementioned Breslin, Morris Chestnut and – in a rather thankless part – “Sopranos” alum Michael Imperiolii, and that “Machinist” director Brad Anderson (in other words, no ‘hack’) is helming, but the libretto enough encompasses enough captivating moments outside of the talented cast and crew.
