The Night Listener

• The Illusionist (Widescreen Edition)
• The Prestige
• Babel
• Hollywoodland (Widescreen Edition)
• The Guardian
• Flags of Our Fathers (Widescreen Edition)
• The Good Shepherd (Widescreen Edition)
• Blood Diamond (Two-Disc Special Edition)
• The Black Dahlia (Widescreen Edition)
• Deja Vu

I didn't like I though that it could be interesting, since I like his movies, but I did not like, the end is make non-sense

Within a short amount of time, Gabriel becomes fond of this fan, even though they've only communicated via telephone. The book is a memoir of a childhood filled with abuses and other strange incidents.

That is, until one day, his estranged lover suggested that the fan may not be who he claims to be. *The Night Listener* moves somewhat slow but I do understand that it was necessary to build suspense.

He's been asked to review a book from a young man, with health problems, who happens to be Gabriel's biggest fan. Overall, good but just don't expect it to be mind-blowing like *Sixth Sense* or *The Others*.

This is where things become eerie because things are just not what they seem to be. Yet, the result that it produced wasn't as creepy as it could have been.

Robin Williams plays Gabriel Noone, a radio personality, who is going through a "time-out" from his lover. Irked by the suggestion, Gabriel decides to head out and investigate.

Brrr. I usually don't mention extras, but I recommend watching "The Night Listener Revealed" on this disc, as it explains a lot. Of course, things are never quite as they appear to be. This time out, Williams gets to play the goodguy, plagued by Peter's caretaker, Donna (the incredible Toni Collette from The Dead Girl), who could be playing games w/ Noone, and just might be dangerous. Robin Williams (ONE HOUR PHOTO, INSOMNIA) is his normal / abnormal stellar self as radio storyteller, Gabriel Noone who gets drawn into what he believes to be a close phone relationship w/ a horribly abused 14yo boy named Peter Logand. The story deals w/ the unpredictability of the mentally damaged.

Instead, it is a movie that crawls under the skin with creeping dread. So, watch the movie and the extras, including a deleted scene that is definitely more "thrilling" than the rest of the movie. THE NIGHT LISTENER (based on a true story) isn't a very physical, or exhillerating movie. Worse, is she leading him deeper into her own insanity. Robin Williams actually gives the most chilling statement when he describes the real "Donna" making her presense known during the films production. Well, I was pretty far off the mark. After reading the DVD box quote by Roger Ebert: "An Eerie, Hitchcockian Thriller.", I was expecting a cross between PSYCHO, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, and REAR WINDOW.

Is Donna leading Gabriel along for some dark purpose.

What's that supposed to tell us. Does he recognize all the letters because he wrote them all. As "Gabrielle" Noone, Toni would have been able to ace those scenes with her crotchety, conservative Southern father played by John Cullum as if someone had shot him in the butt shortly before the director called out "Action" with an extra dose of irascibility. Maybe I should ask this on IMDB, but I didn't understand the point of the scene where Robin Williams, as the male Gabriel Noone, is snooping around Donna's house and finds a pile of mail all addressed to Peter Logand. Plus, it's been far too long since Toni Collette got to take the leading part in a movie and she probably could have handled the domestic part as well, although the relationship she would have been in with Bobby Cannavale (a younger man whose AIDS diagnosis had, until very recently, doomed him to a death sentence, and now he wants a new taste of freedom away from Toni Collette) would have been a straight relationshipbut still poignant, and possibly more poignant than it is right now. You can't help but read it and think of JT LeRoy. JT LeRoy must have realized his days were numbered as soon as this movie came out, or rather, as soon as the novel that inspired it hit the bookstores.

I kept looking at that name "Peter Logand" and thinking it must be sort of an anagram (like Gabriel "Noone" was a shorthand for "No One.") But an anagram for whatPretend Goal. Or are they all from different famous people whom Peter has reached out to, just like the real JT LeRoy. If Williams had been the caregiver, well, he's famous for doing all those voices and he would have played the part to a T. No doubt it would have been scarier if Robin Williams had played the caregiver of the poor 14 year old abused boy Pete Logand, and Toni Collette had played the driven radio talk show host whose drab life gets a shot in the arm when she becomes obsessed with getting in touch with the boy, who has written what could turn out to be a best seller in the making, THE BLACKING FACTORY, describing his early life in his parents' basement as the victim of a gang of midwestern pervs. Isn't Pete supposed to live in the house too.

Yet when all is revealed, the truth is anti-climactic to say the least. With a surprisingly brief 80 minute run time, The Night Listener never really achieves a dramatic arc. Ironically, the radio host uses the boy as a sort of support group as well as he is suffering through realtionship troubles himself. This script could have benefitted greatly from some fleshing out of characters and more attention to build-up and payoff. The boy resides with a foster parent who also communicates with the radio host and shares the radio host's great sympathy for the young boy's plight. When we see him, the boy is whittling away his final days communicating with the radio host and using him as a sort of support group. We presume the boy contracted AIDS during that period.

The boy is reported to have been enslaved and subjected to unthinkable torture and rape at the hands of both his parents and others. It's a journey that leaves you feeling as if it should have led you someplace more worthwhile. The host is given a manuscript of the boy's life story, which is soon to be published. The Night Listener has potential but is lazily directed. Rather it plods along with the faint promise that danger may lurk ahead. A personally troubled, openly gay radio host (Robin Williams) is contacted by a teenage fan who is dying of AIDS, (although illness is only part of the boy's story). The Night Listener, based on a true story, starts fairly auspiciously.

After a short time the validity of the boy's story comes in to question to the point where his actual existence is even doubted.