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November 23, 2007 12:37 PM

FRIDAY FLICK: The Night Listener

While Armistead Maupin is one of my favourite authors, The Night Listener is my least favourite of his books. But when I went to an author reading earlier in the year, he talked about the true story behind the book and then the movie version starring Robin Williams and Toni Colette that it made me want to watch it. I wish I'd stuck with my first instinct.

When Gabriel Noone is given a book purportedly written by a 14-year-old boy detailing the abuses he suffered at the hands of his parents, he's impressed by the story and the writing. And then the publisher gives the boy, Pete, Gabriel's number and they start talking on the phone.

Having recently broken up with his long-term boyfriend, Gabriel is lonely and finds himself talking to Pete and his foster mum, Donna, on a regular basis. And then Gabriel's ex suggests that Donna and Pete have the same voice and Gabriel sets off to their home town in Wisconsin to find out the truth. Which is where, for me, the film totally lost the plot...

Part of the reason I didn't enjoy the book was its dark and claustrophobic atmosphere, which is just personal taste, but in the film I found it really didn't work. Once Gabriel reaches Wisconsin, The Night Listener seems to want to be a traditional thriller, so there are loads of scenes of Gabriel sneaking around in the dark and a really terrible scene in a hospital. Gabriel's behaviour becomes increasingly ridiculous and unbelievable. Frankly, he got right on my wick.

Although the acting is excellent - both Williams and, of course, Toni Collette - I found it way too heavy-handed and it lost all the subtlety of the book. A real shame.

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Posted by Keris on November 23, 2007 in Friday Flick | Permalink

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