The Night Listener – Der nächtliche Lauscher (2006)

The Night Listener – Der nächtliche Lauscher: Directed by Patrick Stettner. With Toni Collette, Robin Williams, Joe Morton, Bobby Cannavale. In the midst of his crumbling relationship, a radio show host begins speaking to his biggest fan, a young boy, via the telephone. But when questions about the boy’s identity come up, the host’s life is thrown into chaos.

“u0026quot;The Night Listeneru0026quot; tells the story of Gabriel No one a radio storyteller who finds himself living his most interesting yarn yet. He is given a book to review by his publisher and strikes up a telephone friendship with the troubled young author, Pete Logand. When questions come up about the sordid events of Peteu0026#39;s autobiographical work Gabriel sets out to discover the truth.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film takes a steady, sober look at its characters which avoids the pitfalls of typical u0026quot;suspenseu0026quot; films. The characters are believable and interesting, with Toni Collette delivering a particularly fine performance. For some reason though, the story simply didnu0026#39;t have much of an impact on me. If I had to hazard a guess why I would say that the relationship between Gabriel and Pete wasnu0026#39;t given enough time to breathe in this short 82 minute film. The early repartee between Robin Williams and Rory Culkin was some of the best material in the film. I think we needed a bit more of that to feel the sense of connection that Gabriel did and to understand the need that this relationship answered in his life. At one point he asks himself, u0026quot;Why am I here?u0026quot; Unfortunately, we cannot convincingly answer.”