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| Stars look less than hopeful on this dark and gloomy poster for Patrick Stettner's The Night Listener |
A prominent radio host storyteller in New York gets dumped by his younger boyfriend and comes into connection with a 14 year-old boy, who has been abused. - But is the boy real?
The Night Listener is written by Terry Anderson (The Young Graduates (1971, original story)), Armistead Maupin (Babycakes (1984, novel)) and co-writer/director Patrick Stettner (The Business of Strangers (2001)). It is an adaptation of the same-titled 2000 novel by Maupin, and is based on a true story that presented itself to Maupin.
It is a very dark and sombre Christmas movie, which benefits immensely from its strong actors: Robin Williams (Mork & Mindy (1978-82)) is credible in the protagonist role, and we more or less understand what makes him travel to Wisconsin to know for sure about the boy. Rory Culkin (Hick (2011)) is taunting in the central, controversial role as said boy; it is a 'grey zone' role involving scenes with sexual overtones that will strike some as off-putting, (although the two characters only speak on the phone together.) SPOILER Toni Collette (Knives Out (2019)) is central and chilling as the woman who invents incest stories (and a human being) to gain attention and sympathy.
The Night Listener is a disturbing 'late-night-watch'-type movie for grownups.
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 3 mil. $
Box office: 10.6 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 3.53 times its cost)
[The Night Listener premiered 21 January (Sundance Film Festival, Utah) and runs 81 minutes. The story is based on Maupin's experience of getting sent an abuse story novel manuscript in 1992, allegedly from a 14 year-old boy, who turned out to be a creation of the woman Vicki Johnson. Williams was paid 65k $ for his performance in the film. Shooting took place around April 2005 in New York and New Jersey. The film opened #10 to a 3.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it never achieved a higher rank and grossed 7.8 mil. $ (73.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 1.3 mil. $ (12.3 %) and Mexico with 577k $ (5.4 %). Stettner has only returned as writer/director of a TV-series episode in 2012 but has otherwise left filmmaking completely. Williams returned in RV (2006); Collette in Murderous Intent (2006); and Culkin in Lymelife (2008). The Night Listener is rotten at 40 % with a 5.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of The Night Listener?
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