51
Metascore
23 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisAn effectively creepy thriller about a 911 operator and a young miss in peril, The Call is a model of low-budget filmmaking.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Call for the most part is a tense, extreme-jeopardy thriller that delivers the intended goods.
- 50McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMcClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreRare is the thriller that goes as completely and utterly wrong as The Call does at almost precisely the one hour mark. Which is a crying shame, because for an hour, this is a riveting, by the book kidnapping.
- 50The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasAll that unsavory business aside, the biggest problem with the third act is how the film discards the novelty of its own premise in order to bring its star into the action. When Berry trades her headset for a rock, it’s the bluntest metaphor imaginable for a film that’s completely lost its mind.
- 50Boston GlobeTy BurrBoston GlobeTy BurrYou’ve seen pieces of this movie in “Psycho,” “Silence of the Lambs,” and 2004’s “Cellular.” Still, the early scenes in the Hive give The Call a needed novelty: It’s a workplace drama, and the work is responding to other people’s desperate worst-case scenarios.
- 50Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaPhiladelphia InquirerSteven ReaThe film is at once shamelessly transparent, manipulative, and far-fetched, and impossibly suspenseful. You'll want to take a shower afterward - that's how icky you'll feel.
- 50USA TodayClaudia PuigUSA TodayClaudia PuigThe action starts with a bang, but deteriorates and grows more absurd as the story strays farther from the LAPD call center.
- 45The shoddy attention to character, plausibility and detail is particularly surprising coming from Anderson, a director of smart indie thrillers like "The Machinist," "Session 9" and "Transsiberian." He's been a gifted filmmaker with a talent for creating chilling tension through meticulous control of just these elements.
- 38Slant MagazineSlant MagazineBrad Anderson's film is defined by an often frustrating combination of cleverness and stupidity.