I’ve always liked suspense movies ever since I was a kid. I liked the feeling of being tortured emotionally by a scene on screen, like someone chasing the antagonist and it made me feel like jumping on my seats rooting for that person to survive the murderer; like in Amityville Horror (the latest with Ryan Reynolds in it) or Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
But as I grew up and watched more and more movies, (especially American movies), the thrill just got bland and it’s most likely faded because as time passes by, you get to know a movie and even worse predict what’s going to happen or even worse, the direction or the execution of the movie is not like in the past.
There are still some films out there (especially American movies… again) that still have this type of thrill that I wanted, but only a few left. One of it was when I watched the movie The Call.
OVERVIEW (Without spoilers)
The movie is about a 911 agent Jordan played by Halle Berry, who seems to be just a normal person trying to take in calls and trying to save someone’s life… you know, just normal (pun intended).
Anyway, she got a call, one day that changed her life.
She braces herself as she tries to rescue this certain person from a murderer that ended in failure. She lived her life in guilt, pain and regret for the next years until one day, history repeated itself with the same murderer.
She has to redeem herself by helping another victim, and a cat and mouse chase with exciting twist and turn happens.
WHY I LOVED THE CALL
First of all, by this movie, I realized how DIFFICULT mentally, emotionally, spiritually and everything is to become a 911 agent. The mere fact that you take in threatened calls in a normal day would be so intense that I don’t think my mind and body can handle. It’s very tough especially when you didn’t give the help of the person on the other line who’s asking for it.
Sometimes, we just hear funny prank calls on YouTube about stupid people calling 911 services, but little did we know how serious it is to have that kind of job.
I have worked in a Call Centre and I don’t think customer service with irate customers (because they want services to work for them), would compare working in a 911 customer service. And this emotion of hardship was shown in the movie, that’s why it’s good.
Second, a talked about the thrill in movies that are only present in few American films nowadays and I love that The Call gave me the excitement that I needed to see.
And lastly, the story is unique. I don’t know if there are other movies out there having the same storyline as this, but The Call is such a unique perspective of a 911 officer with an interesting story of vengeance.
Overall, The Call is thrilling in a sense of need for redemption and uniqueness of storyline in this world whose filmmaking is starting to become rip-offs of other film.
One Setting Travels 