Movie Review: The Night Listener
This movie stars Robin Williams and Rory Culkin and was made in 2006. The story is based on true events. The film is about Gabriel’s (Robin Williams) romantic life falls apart he receives a manuscript from a troubled young fan (Rory Culkin). Despite his friends’ warnings, fragile Gabriel develops an unsettling relationship with the boy and his blind guardian.
This is one of those “WTF” type movies you see out there. I didn’t think that it was very well written myself and the story really gave away the suprise of what it was about I think very early on. It just seemed to have nothing to offer really to me. IT is tough to tell you what I thought was ridiculous in it with out giving too much away, but really the story gives it away pretty early on. There is actually another character who plays Culkin’s guardian that is more prominent in the movie which ends up being what the film is essentially about. That character is kind of a whacko and it becomes apparent about halfway through the movie that she is very odd.
The acting was very poor in this movie other than Williams. The dialog was very poorly written and it was just one of those movies that didn’t surprise you at all. This movie I guess could be put into the drama category, but it is listed as a Thriller most places I look. Believe me there is nothing thrilling about this movie. Nothing that is going to freak you out, or keep you on the edge of your seat by any means. You just already know where this story is going because they don’t do a very good job at keeping it a mystery.
This movie is probably a 2.5 out of 5 stars movie for me. I watched it because I got it from Netflix, but it certainly didn’t immerse me in anything and I could have shut it off at any time with out ever really caring what happened.
