Halle Berry is Jordan Turner, a 911 operator who decided to step away from the 911 call centre and become a trainer when a decision she made contributed to the abduction and subsequent death of a teenaged girl. However while on a routine floor tour with incoming recruits, she gets dragged into a call, which is very much like the call she took 6 months ago. Can she right the wrongs of that last call and save this teenaged girl (Abigail Breslin)?

The first thing that pops up on the screen, when the lights go down in the cinema, is the WWE Studios (World Wrestling Entertainment Studios) logo. You can’t help but think, this can’t bode well. How can a wrestling entertainment company produce a high quality thriller?

Well they started in the right manner by casting great female talent who can hold their own on screen – Halle Berry and Abigail Breslin,

It was good to see strong female characters on the screen who didn’t need a man to save the day. However, the way they handled things in the end was farcical and took from their characters. Knowing this why did the actresses sign up and why didn’t they demand some script changes?!

The first 80 minutes of The Call was actually not bad. Yes it was formulaic, with a lot of convenient set ups along the way to make sure one scene moved very smoothly to the next (as is often done in WWE wrestling matches). The cheesy and convenient set ups could be overlooked though because there were some genuine tense moments and some jumps to be had through out the film.

However, it all unraveled in the last 15 minutes. It was like everyone panicked when it was time for the big finale.  You could almost hear the off screen screams of “What do we do? Should some WWE dramatics be thrown in? Let’s just make it a free for all?”

My call – don’t pick up the phone! Let it ring out. Oh and stay out of the cinema this weekend, it’s bad! Turn on your TV instead for high quality drama and thrillers.