Although not to the same degree as novels, part of the allure of listening to radio personalities -- at least before they started appearing on TV and then on the Internet -- was that you had no idea what they looked like and thus let your imagination fill in the details. Granted, some of them fabricated themselves for their shows and thus weren't anything like how they sounded if you happened to have a chance encounter with them.
Of course, callers to their shows were also sometimes fabricated, either by the show itself, or by those dialing in, hoping to get on the air and put one over on their more seasoned counterpart on the other side of the radio dial.
That's part of the allure of "The Night Listener," a suspenseful drama supposedly based on a real-life incident regarding just that. Not being familiar in the slightest, I can't attest to the true-life portrayal of said events, but can say that this film is intriguing, if mainly for its theme of what constitutes a personality as well as the running mystery of whether the title character is the real deal or just a fabrication of some disturbed soul.
In it, Robin Williams returns to the professional side of the radio (following being on the wrong end of a call in "The Fisher King"), and thankfully underplays the part (especially as compared to playing Adrian Cronauer in "Good Morning, Vietnam"). He's the gay talk show host whose longstanding relationship has faltered due to his inability to keep his personal and professional lives apart.
With that loss, he's focused his energies on a terminally ill boy -- played by Rory Culkin -- who's become a regular caller to the show and has a book to be published about his short but troubled life. When Pete is too sick to talk, his mom -- played by Toni Collette -- converses with Gabriel about his state. Perhaps due to wanting to believe in something, he doesn't seem to recognize the similarities in the boy and his mother's voice, or that he's yet to meet them. After that seed of doubt is planted in his mind, the radio host then sets out to meet them, only to encounter obstacles that could possibly be benign, but might also just be the sign of something more troubling at play.
Working from an adaptation of Armistead Maupin's novel that he co-wrote with the novelist and screenwriter Terry Anderson, director Patrick Stettner spends half or so of the movie setting up the premise and the rest of the scant 80-some minutes in executing the conclusion.
That's when the suspense supplants the drama, as things get murkier for Williams' character as he starts digging for the truth, always trying to work his way around the mother's excuses about why he can't see her boy. Accordingly, we're supposed to be drawn deeper into the story as the suspense supposedly builds until eventually coming to a head when the truth is finally revealed.
The effect is decent but nothing outstanding, particularly since the film really only has one way to go once the story's been set in motion. Had Williams' character been drawn in a more nebulous fashion (his sense of reality being blurred by his on-air personality invading his life, etc.), that could have added an additional and more thematically interesting level of suspense. As it stands, I had little doubt about the pending revelation (notwithstanding being uncertain about the specific details).
The performances are generally strong, with Williams leading the way without the sort of histrionics or maudlinness that occasionally accompany his comedic and dramatic roles respectively. Toni Collette nicely plays the blind woman who could be a protective mother or a person a few stations off the end of the radio dial. Rory Culkin and Sandra Oh inhabit smaller parts and make the best of what little material they've been given, but this is really a two-person show.
Decent but feeling like it could have been so much more in terms of story, character depth and exploration, and finally suspense, "The Night Listener" isn't up there with radio host thrillers like "Play Misty For Me," but it's good enough to earn a slight recommendation. It rates as 5.5 out of 10.
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