The Call: Trouble on the Line

Last updated on: March 15, 2013 at 6:15 am by Coyle Neal

The Call: Trouble on the Line 2013-03-15T06:15:46-06:00 Coyle Neal

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Review of The Call directed by Brad Anderson

Jordan Turner (Halle Berry) works in “the Hive”—a 911 call center in California. When she receives a call from a girl being abducted, Jordan does her job efficiently and well, dispatching the first-responders and assuring the girl that help is on the way. Unfortunately, help does not get there in time and the girl is murdered. Despite the reassurances of her friends and coworkers that she did everything right and that she shouldn’t take things so personally (the job of course would be unbearable if the operator was deeply affected by the outcome of every 911 call), Jordan leaves the call center and becomes a trainer for the Hive. Months later, she is leading a group of trainees through the Hive when a call comes in from Casey (Abigail Breslin)—another young girl being held captive. When the new operator panics Jordan takes over: Will she be able to help save Casey or will the kidnapper claim another victim?

For the most part, this is a perfectly serviceable horror movie. (I refuse to use the word “thriller.”) I realize that horror as a genre is worthy of more extended attention than I have room to give it here (I know, I know, I keep promising to get around to giving it that attention), but I can at least say that if you are the sort of person who appreciates horror, this one is a decent enough film. Not that it’s great, mind you—just a good solid flick that does all the things horror should do: builds tension, maintains a forward-moving plot, and involves some amount of catharsis (man, is there ever catharsis). And while it stumbles a couple of times in its attempt to be truly frightening, these faults are generally offset by well-placed music and the ability of the actors involved (especially Abigail Breslin). Moreover, if you’re the squeamish type, this movie tones down the gore and focuses instead on psychological tension and the use of confined spaces to build suspense. All in all, a respectable film.

In addition to being a decent movie, The Call raises some interesting questions about the way we try to compartmentalize ourselves. We as Americans like to draw little boxes around the various aspects of our lives. We have our work, our family, our faith, our friends, our school, and so on. While some of these are more integrated than others (certainly many of us are friends with those in our family), by and large we like to keep these apart. Especially when it comes to work, we try to separate our personal lives from our business lives. No one wants to have the boss who comes in and tells you about drinking and crying themselves to sleep, or the employee who is always late to work because they’ve been up all night working at the soup kitchen. This kind of dynamic is considered inappropriate certainly on a professional level, but even to some extent is simply uncomfortable on a personal level. As George Costanza reminds us, the worlds must be kept apart or else they explode.

The Call obviously takes this to another level, since most of us do not work in a place that by definition involves emergencies around the clock. If any of us need to separate our work life from our personal life, it clearly should be those of us who are regularly involved with the worst aspects of humanity. For example, after the first call that ends in murder, Jordan is told over and over that she has done everything right, that she has done her job well and has no responsibility for the outcome of events, and that she should not take things so personally. What’s more, she agrees with all of these statements—even to the point of teaching them to others. You do have to build a wall between work and home that keeps the two separate, otherwise the one will make the other unbearable.

But it’s here that the whole idea of compartmentalization breaks down. How do you remain unaffected while a little girl is being kidnapped and murdered? Can we really say “that’s a problem I only have to think about at work, when work is over I’m going out partying with friends”? Whatever reassurances others may give us, we are (and should be!) affected by what happens to others not just in one area of our lives, but across the board.

The point here is that people are organically whole beings who are connected to each other at a basic level. I don’t mean this in some kind of New Agey or mystical way, but in the deeply Christian sense that we are made by God to live as complete individuals in fellowship with each other. One effect of sin on our lives is that we are divided both within ourselves and from each other, to the point that we all even agree a little bit when Jordan’s supervisor tells her that she shouldn’t get so personally involved with her job. And of course, the biggest effect of sin is that it divides us from God, compartmentalizes us, if you will, away from full and complete fellowship with Him and into the strict compartment of His wrath (I know, not the best analogy, but I work with what I’m given).

The solution The Call suggests is that, by gosh, we should take these things personally, and we should mix our professional and personal lives, and we should be complete and whole people living in relationships with each other without the barriers of the separate worlds dividing us. And, that’s fine as far as it goes when you’re talking about civil society (I have friends on both the left and the right who would be all over that message in a political forum). Beyond that, we only have a limited capability to repair and unify ourselves, and none at all when it comes to repairing the lost relationship with God. Which is where Christians have good news: where we have failed, God Himself has become a man in the person of Jesus Christ, has lived the whole and complete life that you and I should have lived, and died in our place on the cross, taking all of what we deserved on Himself and in its place giving us the relationship with God and with each other that we could never achieve ourselves.

To sum up: go see The Call, if horror movies are your thing—it’s worthwhile both for its quality as a film and its thoughtful comments on life.

Dr. Coyle Neal lives in Washington, DC, where he is busy Googling the best way to escape from the locked trunk of a moving car.

Action

Films

Brad Anderson

Previous Post

March 14, 2013

Chasing the Orgastic Future with Jay Gatsby

Next Post

March 15, 2013 Stoker’s Identity and Inheritance

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Action AFI Top 100 Animation Best Picture Winner BFI Top 250 Biography Biopic Books Childrens Christian Classics Classics Comedy Crime Documentary Drama Editor's Choice Family Fantasy Fantasy Films Foreign Historical Historical Fiction History Horror Horror IMDB Top 250 Indie Memoir Modern Novel Musical Mystery Non-Fiction Oscars Philosophy Poetry Popular Literature Reading and Writing Reality Romance Science Fiction Science Fiction Silent Sports Thriller TV Show Uncategorized Western Westerns Young Adult

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 June 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the king of Babylon when Daniel was in the lions’ den?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Darius Belshazzar Cyrus Nebuchadnezzar