Customer Reviews

Long Distance

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Long Distance" is an intriguing little film that I discovered quite by accident. Yet another in a long line of low budget movies about serial killers, there is more to this indie than at first might meet the eye. It doesn't break any new cinematic ground, but manages to take a worn premise and make it feel fresh and different. The film is a claustrophobic, unsettling and dread-filled experience whose first half develops an effective mood that sustains the picture, even when aspects of the script start to strain credibility. Credit must be given to the tight direction, solid performances, and skillfully understated cinematography--even without a lot of money, you can create a real creepiness. And the creepy ambiance of "Long Distance" is what distinguishes it from less effective fare.

The film's simple setup puts us in the apartment of Nicole, played nicely by Monica Keena. Upset and alone after a recent breakup, Nicole gets into a long distance argument with her mother late one evening. When she attempts to call her back, she misdials and gets someone else's answering machine. Almost immediately, that call is returned by an unknown man calling himself an "average Joe." Having used Caller ID to reach her, they start a conversation that alternately amuses and annoys Nicole. He keeps calling, however, until Nicole shuts off her answering service. Thinking nothing of it, a detective visits the next day--seems the phone calls had come from the home of a lady who had been brutally murdered. Nicole is justifiably upset, but things get even worse when "Joe" starts calling more frequently--always from the scene of a murder. As "Joe" seems to be traveling cross country on his killing spree, Nicole works with the police to try and stop him.

On the surface, this seems like a pretty standard setup. What makes it work so well is Keena's performance. An interesting actress that has not followed the typical ingenue career path, Keena is extremely effective at conveying the many layers necessary for the part. Her fear, her shame, her helplessness--it all seems natural. The film is set exclusively in her apartment building and she is in almost every shot, so caring about her is vital to the success of "Long Distance." And I did care. The film develops a genuinely haunting mood, and the phone conversations are done impeccably. It's very scary, especially since it's all done via telephone.

Unfortunately, I didn't love everything in the film. The police procedural can seem pretty empty-headed or unbelievable at times. This is explained, in theory, during the film's conclusion, so you can forgive some of the frustration it may cause you. And the resolution, itself, has become somewhat of a standard cliche' in this type of film. Some may love it, but it seemed awfully familiar to me--especially after the rest of the film had been so surprisingly good. About 3 1/2 stars, I could really round it either way and it would be a fair rating. But in this case, the creepy mood and Keena's spot-on performance have me rounding up. KGHarris, 02/07.

I have a few problems with this film. First, hasn't the "I know you're home alone" routine been done to death? This is a forgivable sin in my book however since I have a soft spot for slasher films.

My second issue is that this film was marketed as a gory horror flick which it certainly is not. The DVD disc itself is adorned with copious blood splatters and a shot of the main character giving her best "Psycho" shower scream. Alas, a few bloody sheets in crime photos are as close as this one gets to a slasher. But sadly this film even fails as a psychological/serial killer thriller.

The first act of this film is actually pretty good. The set-up is sufficiently engrossing and a few potentially interesting characters are introduced. However, as it moves into the second act, (which is the meat and potatoes of any film), it gradually unravels into a disjointed, overlong, and tedious mess with some pretty awful dialogue and acting thrown in for good measure (think Lifetime Network here). There are countless scenes which serve in no way to advance the plot.

The greatest sin of this film though, is that there is absolutely no sense of suspense or jeopardy after the first 20 minutes of the film. Any chance of that is dashed because the main character is accompanied in EVERY SINGLE SCENE either by a police detective who has opted to shack up in her apartment or the ever present and overacted FBI criminal psychologist. How can you create a sense of tension or danger when the girl is never alone!!! The only jeopardy is whether or not the cops can catch the killer before he claims another victim (which we don't really care about because we never see the killer or his random victims).

Of course the third act reveals the Shyamalanesque "twist" which is supposed to wipe away all the nonsense you're forced to endure for over an hour in the second act. And really this third act "revelation" shouldn't be much of a surprise to most viewers. SPOILER ALERT!!! It is revealed that the events leading up to the "surprise" have taken place in the mind of the main character who is mentally distrubed. That's right folks, the dreaded dream sequence card is played to end this one. A cardinal sin in my book. While this "surprise" revelation does provide a perfectly logical reason for why the second act is such a trainwreck, it is in no way enough of a payoff to justify the viewer being subjected to over an hour of paper thin and ludicrous characters, inane dialogue and largely directionless scenes. Just because it turns out that the entire second act took place in the main character's mind doesn't change the fact that you still had to sit through it! Many will like the film simply for the gimmick. As moviegoers we seem to like to be tricked. But as evidenced by Long Distance, being tricked doesn't necessarily equate to good filmmaking.

This movie had me on the edge of my seat. If you are looking for a gore fest this isn't it, this is more suspensful, along the Hitchcock genre. The twist at the end is unexpected and mindblowing.

I disagree with the previous reviewer. The director makes you use you rimagination because you only hear the killer's voice, you don't see him. You don't see him commit the crimes, you only hear them along with Nicole. This movie had me on edge and I don't normally get that from most "thrillers." My only beef with the movie is I still don't understand the ending and I am going to buy it just so I can figure it out. Monica Keena really shines in this movie.

"Long Distance" spends the first 85 or so minutes of its 93-minute running time establishing itself as one of the better thrillers ever made, and the rest of the length deflating terribly with an ending that just doesn't work, and worse, detracts badly from the rest of the movie. It's a shame because everything up until that point was very well done, not just thrown together, with some fine performances; in the end though, the desire to have an unexpected twist ending instead of a more generic finish proved to be its undoing.

Monica Keena (Lori from "Freddy Vs. Jason") plays a girl named Nicole who dials a wrong number (by one digit) from her apartment, and ends up getting a strange, creepy voice on the other end. After some unsettling comments from her wrong number, she hangs up, but gets called right back. The benefits of caller ID. It turns out Nicole's interrupted the work of a serial killer, who's become interested in the idea of playing mind games with her. So over the next few days he calls and re-calls her with more taunts. Once the police are involved, the discovery is made that each call is being made from closer and closer as the caller crosses the country to Nicole's current location, and worse still, each call turns out to have been made from the site of a different recent murder.

It's a great concept with real suspense, and the subtle relationship budding between Nicole and the police officer assigned to be her main protection is very skillfully handled. Nicole's apartment building is watched constantly and guarded by the police as they wait to capture the killer if he makes it that far, while other police forces across the country try to use clues from the phone calls to home in on him before he kills anyone else. And then....

The fact that everything is done so well for well over an hour makes the ending all the more regrettable. If they were going for a twist they got it, because I never remotely saw it coming until it started happening. And I remember as it was starting just thinking Oh-no,-they're-Can't-be-going-where-I-think-they're-going-with-this. This type of ending has been done in sort of the same way a few times previously. It never worked then, and it didn't work here. If they'd just gone with a generic, happened-a-thousand-times-before finale, it might have been anticlimatic, but it would have left the movie as a whole relatively unscathed. I don't mean to be so negative, but I hated to see such a great movie hamstrung so badly by its end. If "Long Distance" had been just an okay movie with a weak ending, it wouldn't have been so unfortunate, but it was So good right up until the last ten minutes or so.

Now others might find the conclusion a lot more palatable than I did - it Was unexpected, and the good acting carries through even despite...well. But for me, it was on its way to being a 9/10 or so, and it dropped down to about a five. I'd really like to round the star rating up to three in honor of its early going, but I've made the mistake previously of rating too many really fine movies with a three-star (maybe I set the bar too high early on) that I can't justify it here. I wish there was a two-and-a-half star option.

To make up for having to admit how disappointing the ending was, I'll finish off with a recap of some of the many positives. Innovative idea, fine pacing, strong performances (especially by Keena), a few terrifically tense moments and some surprisingly touching ones. I'm still glad I saw it, but when it was over it just seemed so unfortunate that they came close to hitting the jackpot and missed it by one number that was so far off base; I'd definately recommend renting before buying. The cast and crew all did well; maybe they should reunite for another movie. Heck, maybe they should reunite and remake this and not take that twist.

That first 85 minutes or so was awfully good, though.

"Long Distance" is a thriller starring gorgeous Monica Keena (`Snow White: A Tale of Terror' `Freddy vs. Jason') as lonely graduate student Nicole Freeman. She lives alone in a quiet Boston apartment, leading a rather isolated life from the outer world and working on her thesis, but she is not very happy these days because her boyfriend has left her recently. Moreover, her nagging mother has just called Nicole and this is not something that would cheer her up after the split with her ex-lover.

But real terror arrives when Nicole misdialed her mom's telephone number. `Joe' the person who answered the phone calls back, and keeps talking to her in an alarmingly friendly way. The caller, as it turns out, is a serial killer. `Joe' keeps calling Nicole and seems getting closer to her every day. Ivan Martin also appears as Frank, young policeman protecting Nicole at her home and Tamala Jones is an FBI profiler.

[This Paragraph and the Next Include MINOR SPOILERS] It is hard for me to summarize the pros and cons of the film without revealing crutial points of the story, but I will try. The film's biggest flaw is the lack of suspense in its earlier part. The camera seldom leaves the building Nicole lives in, so the story's suspense almost all depends on the dialogues over the phone in the first 45 minutes. This is a quite tough work to do, and those who remember the dynamite opening of `Scream' would see my point. The killer(s) must suggest the presence to terrify the victims and the viewers, and an over-the-phone conversation alone is not the best way to raise the emotional tension. And if you know the killer is coming closer to you, why not leave the town?

Conceptually `Long Distance' is more interesting than its duller first half suggests, especially when it proceeds towards the conclusion. The film's contrived story makes sense after all, and the film's storytelling is fair in giving us the clues as to the mystery surrounding the caller, but I think we need more actions or atmosphere for the earlier part of the film to interest us.

Finally I watched this film because of Monica Keena. I do not talk about her acting as terrified Nicole; I only say I liked it, but you may find it differently. Whatever your reaction is, it is true that like Brittany Murphy (another favorite of mine) she has not met a right director who can effectively use her unique presence on the screen.

The film is very good till the very last two minutes. You will really be thrilled and frightened by this film but you will lose tracks of any rational meaning at the end. After a while you will not know who is who and where you stand and that will be definitely scary. A good thriller provide you do not try to understand the end. The punch line will punch you down flat on the ground. Some will tell you that end does not provide you with a solution to the crimes. True. But at the same time some others will say the solution is quite obvious. And that's where I say all rational logic is lost. No matter who the killer could be how could he or she be in four or five states away from the original place, and at the same time with the girl who would be seized by a serious case of delusion. Then what is the role of the FBI profiler all along and even after the last crime? She has been a witness of it all and yet she completely goofed it off and down. That does not work. To know the killer at the end is not important but all the possible solutions have to be possible not materially impossible.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines, CEGID

This movie is awesome! Very well done and enjoyable to watch. A must for fans who like suspense.

This movie is a cousin of the classic thriller, "Sorry, Wrong Number," in which Barbara Stanwyck overhears a murder being plotted when she gets a crossed wire. Those were the days of telephone exchanges run by human operators.

Here instead of those manual exchanges, we get the potential danger of Caller ID. Instead of invalid Barbara Stanwyck, we get young and lushly beautiful Monica Keena. On her own in the big city, she should be safely enough immured in her apartment complex, but she finds she has been made only too vulnerable as a result of all those features that come with a typical Call Package. The trouble again comes from a wrong number - this time a wrong number that she herself dialed.

As Keena realizes her predicament, she reconstructs events. She dialed a wrong number; her call was answered by a serial killer in the very act of slaughtering his victims in their home in a distant city; the killer recovers Keena's number and address from Caller ID; he takes sadistic, erotic glee in calling her back, taunting, increasingly close and personal; the killer starts making his way across country towards her, leaving a trail of victims in his wake.

This is a compelling, frightening premise. And while I at first thought Keena was overacting, striking the wrong note, and exposing the budget Indie roots of this movie - I changed my mind as I got to know her character better. I think Keena pushes all the right buttons after all.

Ludicrous crime melodrama and a "psychological thriller" that totally misses its mark, LONG DISTANCE is still worth a look, if only to watch the scenes in which a beleaguered Monica Keena (playing a grad student at an unnamed Boston University) tries to take a recuperative bath but can't manage to sink below the level of the water because of her enormous lips, and to a lesser degree, her impressive breasts. It's really the lips that star in this film, for even when she's depressed or frightened beyond belief, our heroine never fails to glaze her lips with a bright candy apple red so they glow in the dark like exit signs. She's not a bad little actress by the way, it's only that the plot of the movie is like REPULSION minus any of REPULSION's feeling for surprise or nuance.

She's partnered by an actor who is photographed as though he were Mark Ruffalo, but without Ruffalo's skills at acting. He makes you appreciate Ruffalo (a one note actor if ever there were one) in contrast, for this guy's got a no-note range. And yet despite it all, LONG DISTANCE makes you care about the predictable romance between tough Boston detective and serial killer target, even though you've seen it millions of times before. What the movie could have used was hiring a few other people, so it didn't seem as though only two people live in the entire world, and also it could have used more of the divine theme song music, that you hear at the very end under the credits, "Long Distance" as sung by Channing Leblanc, this generation's Billie Holiday + Chan Marshall mixed together and thrown into the crying game as a single cry of pain.