Starring: Kim Basinger, Chris Evans and William H. Macy
Director: David R. Ellis
Rated: M15+
CELLULAR is a very entertaining thriller.
It is also a thriller that could not have happened 20 years ago. It depends on the developing technology of the mobile phone, the Americans love for their cell phones.
When a science teacher is abducted from her house as her housekeeper is killed, she is kept in a loft where the criminals destroy the phone. But she is able to fix the phone and call out.
The young man who answers is one of those self-absorbed Californian beach guys who deceives himself into thinking he is God’s gift to women. They don’t see it that way at all.
However, as he goes through his day, disbelieving the fantastic story the teacher tells him, then trying to enlist police help, then indulging himself in some rough and tumble, having to hold up a store to get batteries for his cell phone (but leaves the money), tricking the criminals at LAX, warning the wrong man, falling from a roof, hijacking a car (twice) from a supercilious lawyer who deserves it, then involved in the final shootout, he does prove that he is God’s gift to the woman he has saved as well as her husband and son.
That is not the complete synopsis. In fact, there are several important twists along the way that keep audience attention until the end.
Kim Basinger is the teacher and has to experience physical pain as well as the desperation of trying to persuade the young man to help her and then keep him on the line.
Chris Evans does a decent job as the surprised action hero. A bonus is William H. Macy as a policeman about to retire whose conscientiousness breaks the case open.
The action takes place over one day. What a day!
