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List Price: $29.99
Our Price: $26.99
You Save: $ 3.00 (10%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Miramax
Starring: Toni Collette, Robin Williams, Joe Morton, Bobby Cannavale, Rory Culkin
Directed By: Patrick Stettner
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
EAN: 0786936718133
Format: AC-3
Label: Miramax
Manufacturer: Miramax
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Miramax
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2007-01-09
Running Time: 81
Studio: Miramax
Theatrical Release Date: 2006-08-04
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Editorial Reviews:
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Academy Award(R) winner Robin Williams (Best Supporting Actor, GOOD WILL HUNTING, 1997; ONE HOUR PHOTO, INSOMNIA) is unforgettable in a riveting, critically acclaimed psychological thriller based on true events! Gabriel Noone (Williams), a celebrated writer and late-night talk show host, becomes captivated by the harrowing story of a young listener and his adoptive mother (Toni Collette – LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, IN HER SHOES). When troubling questions arise about the boy’s identity, however, Noone finds himself drawn into a widening mystery that hides a deadly secret! Also starring Sandra Oh (SIDEWAYS, TV’s GREY'S ANATOMY) and based on the best-selling novel by Armistead Maupin, THE NIGHT LISTENER delivers unpredictable twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat!
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not interested
Comment: 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
Customer Rating:
Summary: eerie
Comment: Robin Williams plays Gabriel Noone, a radio personality, who is going through a "time-out" from his lover. He's been asked to review a book from a young man, with health problems, who happens to be Gabriel's biggest fan. The book is a memoir of a childhood filled with abuses and other strange incidents.
Within a short amount of time, Gabriel becomes fond of this fan, even though they've only communicated via telephone. That is, until one day, his estranged lover suggested that the fan may not be who he claims to be. Irked by the suggestion, Gabriel decides to head out and investigate. This is where things become eerie because things are just not what they seem to be.
*The Night Listener* moves somewhat slow but I do understand that it was necessary to build suspense. Yet, the result that it produced wasn't as creepy as it could have been. Overall, good but just don't expect it to be mind-blowing like *Sixth Sense* or *The Others*.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't Answer The Phone...
Comment: 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. Well, I was pretty far off the mark! THE NIGHT LISTENER (based on a true story) isn't a very physical, or exhillerating movie. Instead, it is a movie that crawls under the skin with creeping dread. The story deals w/ the unpredictability of the mentally damaged. 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. 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. Is Donna leading Gabriel along for some dark purpose? Worse, is she leading him deeper into her own insanity? I usually don't mention extras, but I recommend watching "The Night Listener Revealed" on this disc, as it explains a lot. Robin Williams actually gives the most chilling statement when he describes the real "Donna" making her presense known during the films production. Brrr! So, watch the movie and the extras, including a deleted scene that is definitely more "thrilling" than the rest of the movie!...
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Modest Proposal
Comment: 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. 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. 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 relationship--but still poignant, and possibly more poignant than it is right now. 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. What's that supposed to tell us? Isn't Pete supposed to live in the house too? Does he recognize all the letters because he wrote them all? Or are they all from different famous people whom Peter has reached out to, just like the real 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. You can't help but read it and think of JT LeRoy. 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 what--Pretend Goal?
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Good Start...but
Comment: The Night Listener, based on a true story, starts fairly auspiciously. 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 host is given a manuscript of the boy's life story, which is soon to be published. The boy is reported to have been enslaved and subjected to unthinkable torture and rape at the hands of both his parents and others. We presume the boy contracted AIDS during that period. 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. Ironically, the radio host uses the boy as a sort of support group as well as he is suffering through realtionship troubles himself.
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. 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.
The Night Listener has potential but is lazily directed. With a surprisingly brief 80 minute run time, The Night Listener never really achieves a dramatic arc. Rather it plods along with the faint promise that danger may lurk ahead. Yet when all is revealed, the truth is anti-climactic to say the least. It's a journey that leaves you feeling as if it should have led you someplace more worthwhile. This script could have benefitted greatly from some fleshing out of characters and more attention to build-up and payoff.
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