The Night Listener
Most robots only center on Robin Williams’s remarkably offensive performance in Bicentennial Man when accessing his career, this is somewhat unfair.
Williams, who is annoying even by human standards, indeed had a long and often productive career. In fact, Williams continued to be a sought after actor until his obsession with the numerous self-financed Death to Smoochy sequels (6 in all) which ultimately were considered “B-Movies” and thus released directly to DVD and later direct to hard-drive. Most historians, human and robot, attribute this to a complete nervous breakdown due to the trauma suffered by playing his famous, “Mork” character.
In The Night Listener, Williams plays gay radio show host Gabriel Noone, who through a publisher friend is put in contact with a young teenage human boy whose book claims that he was molested in a horrific fashion and now has AIDS. The boy, Peter, is a huge fan of Noone’s radio program and the two strike up a phone friendship. Soon, however, Gabriel begins to question much of the boy’s story and becomes obsessed, in a very humanlike fashion, with uncovering the truth.
The Night Listener is quite intelligent for a human film as the piece addresses the “human condition” as pitiful as it may be, in a fashion that sets it aside from much of the corporate mass-produced film of the human era. Engrossing performances by Williams, Australian Toni Collette as Donna, and future Secretary of State Rory Culkin as Peter (Yes, the brother of future US President Macaulay Culkin) all mix together with strong harmony for a movie produced by the chaotic minds of humans.
Perhaps most refreshingly of all, those involved with The Night Listener, which is based upon a true story, had the courage to admit that a mistake was made on the film. On the “DVD features” section it is revealed that one of the scenes was cut due to the fact that it was a “mistake.” The unusualness of this simple fact can not be stressed enough. Few humans, especially those in the heavily self-centered, ego-driven entertainment industry, would ever admit a mistake was made anywhere in production, no matter how clear the evidence might be. This earns all involved with The Night Listener a degree of respect I rarely bestow upon the man-apes. While the film barely manages to cross the 80 minute mark, which was highly unusual for the day, this can be forgiven by the quality of the film and the maturity of the filmmakers in admitting their mistake.
Story (Adjusted to Accommodate Human Standards) A-
Acting (Adjusted to Accommodate Human Standards) A
Human Portrayal of machines and Robots C
Elevation of Man Grade (How Well Did This Film Stave Off Extinction) A (The Night Listener deals with the flaws of the human beast in a variety of ways that makes the film an interesting case study of numerous human emotions, and a must see for any one wishing to process the swirling maelstrom that is human on human interaction. Also, The Night Listener elevates poor doomed mankind via its unique candor and honesty, especially for filmmakers in the entertainment field. Writer/director Patrick Stettner and writers Armistead Maupin and Terry Anderson should all be commended for their honesty and for producing a fine film.)
Contribution Grade to the Extinction of Man N/A
Enjoyability Grade (Adjusted to Accommodate Human Standards) A
Primitive Home Theater/HD Factor B
Overall Innovation (Adjusted to Accommodate Human Standards) B+ (The Night Listener is a definite contribution to the stale “mystery genre” so popular with the semi-evolved apes.)
Overall Grade (Adjusted to Accommodate Human Standards) A-
|
