Product Details

• Actors: Robin Williams, Toni Collette, Sandra Oh
• Language: English
• Subtitles: French, Spanish
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Studio: Miramax Films
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0788872273
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #396,673 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Celebrity and psychosis collide to truly creepy effect in The Night Listener. Radio personality Gabriel Noone (Robin Williams) is asked to read an advance copy of a memoir by a boy who was horribly abused by his parents. Struck by the boy's story, Noone starts talking to him over the phone, gradually taking an almost parental interest in him--until someone suggests that the boy may not be exactly who he seems. Troubled, Noone flies to Wisconsin, where he meets the boy's social worker (Toni Collette, The Sixth Sense, In Her Shoes) and uncovers some alarming secrets. Don't let the vague, faux-literary title The Night Listener lead you astray; this is a horror movie and a very good one. There are no supernatural monsters or relentless axe-murderers, only a damaged, manipulative mind, which proves to be creepier than any serial killer. Williams gives an excellent, quirk-free performance, but it's Collette who gets under your skin and crawls around. She's vividly eerie, the sort of performance that can stick with you for days. Stealthy, surprising, and wonderfully acted all around--the movie also features Joe Morton (The Brother from Another Planet), Bobby Cannavale (The Station Agent), and Sandra Oh (Sideways)--The Night Listener is an unexpected gem. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, but it falls short, August 5, 2006

By 

L. Quido "quidrock" (Tampa, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Sigh. I still have Maupin's novel "The Night Listener" on my nightstand. I understand from friends that it is (once again) more complex and easier to like than the new film. Maupin wrote the script with director Patrick Stettner and Terry Anderson, who was once Maupin's real life partner. The novel is semi-autobiographical, a story of love, loss and obsession that twists itself into a kind of psychological thriller.

Still, I was more compelled by the deeper emotions than I was by the plot twists and dark moments.

I try to see every movie that features Toni Collette. She's a consummate actress that isn't afraid to look ordinary, plain, kind of "horsy" when the role calls for it. In this film, as Donna, the social worker who adopted a young boy, Peter (Rory Culkin)to help him recover from a chilhood of abuse, pedophilia and sexual slavery, as well as AIDS, Collette is down right spooky. She's a little "off", but somehow we can't put our fingers on why. Peter's written a book about his so called childhood. As publishing editor Ashe (the always interesting Joe Morton) puts it, it was the cleanest manuscript he'd read that year, and so compelling that he gives it to author/public radio talk show host Gabriel Noone (Robin Williams) to read and dissect before publication.

Part of Ashe's strategy is to save Noone from himself. Noone is a national figure who brought his talk show (Noone at Night) to life by discussing his relationship with much younger, AIDS-stricken partner Jess (Bobby Cannavale). Throughout their 8 years together, while being applauded for his forthright style by the gay community, Noone has been feeding off his personal life, changing and tweaking details to make a better show. At the beginning of the film, we learn he's barely able to work anymore, because Jess has decided to leave him -- stronger and recovering from his illness, Jess has decided to live life on his own, with people who are more his age. Still, he cares for Gabriel and wants to continue the friendship. It is in the denouement of the relationship that Jess finally confesses that Gabe's laying out of their lives for all to see is what finally drove him away.

Noone reads the book by young Peter and begins a long-distance relationship with him and his caretaker by phone. He's being brought back to life by his feelings of caring when both of the young friends in "real" life, Jess and assistant Anna (Sandra Oh) cause him to take stock of whether or not Peter's story is real. There's a startling similarity to Peter and Donna's voices on the phone, and there's little that Gabe can do when his visit to see Peter in Wisconsin at Christmas is cancelled because Peter is in the hospital. Noone expresses his concerns to Ashe and suddenly Rory's book is on the back burner.

Tension heightens when Gabe decides to take a trip to rural Wisconsin to find out whether or not young Peter is who he says he is. The subsequent twists, turns and final peeling away of the truth in the movie are bizarre, have moments of discomfort, but no real shock or tension, as was found in the films of Hitchcock or "The Sixth Sense", which this film is being compared to. I must admit, however, that there is a moment of absolute terror for me when Gabe is a reluctant passenger in a car that turns off the road. The sounds of it continuing to travel are immediately recognizable to someone from Minnesota as the sounds a car makes when it is traveling over ice on a frozen lake. Now that is true fear.

Robin Williams plays Gabe as a man uncomfortable with where his life has taken him. He's real, he's difficult, and he's a little hard to understand when he finally arrives in Wisconsin. His feelings for Jess are never far from the surface, but it is in his moments with Sandra Oh, that his likeability shines through.

Collette, as mentioned before, is worth the price of admission. Once again, we find ourselves drawn to her, and her performance, almost by the sense of eeriness that she projects.

Cannavale, Morton, and Oh are some of my favorites from television, and all sparkle here, especially in interaction with Williams. Lastly, young Rory Culkin, in his brief moments on screen, is hard not to like.

I'm always surprised when a studio hands a film to a writer, as a director. (He's previously written and directed the forgettable "The Business of Strangers" in 2001, although in that film he also coaxed fine performances from Stockard Channing and Julia Stiles). Stettner is no exception to the rule that big dollars and actors/actresses might need a firmer hand. I am surprised that he was able to get the characterization on film and the performances flowing at this level; his cinematography was interesting, but script, the plotting and the sense of thrill and danger were very underdeveloped. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the final scene tacked on to show the audience where Donna has landed. The scene was almost dysfunctional; instead of leaving the viewer with a sense of dread, it left us wondering where and how she came into money.

Worth a view, but most film-goers will prefer to wait for the DVD.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lovers of Maupin - get this, October 7, 2006

By 

do-not-ask-me "do-not-ask-me" (VA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Night Listener (DVD)

Based on the theatrical release. THE NIGHT LISTENER is a psychological thriller based on the international bestselling novel by Armistead Maupin. The story revolves around a celebrated writer and popular late-night radio show host, Gabriel Noone (Robin Williams), who develops an intense phone relationship with a young listener named Pete (Rory Culkin) and his adopted mother (Toni Collette) just as his own domestic life is undergoing drastic changes. When troubling questions arise regarding the boy's identity, it causes Gabriel's ordered existence to spin wildly out of control as he sets out on a harrowing journey to find the truth.

This was an interesting movie. Almost like a heart warming film at first, only to become a much darker film. I wish the film went at a faster pace. But I am a fan of Maupin (the writer) from his Tales of the City. (This is not a gay film.) While not Oscar level, I liked it for a rainy afternoon.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars It could have been fabulous but missed the boat, January 30, 2007

By 

MLRapp (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Night Listener (DVD)

I really wanted to love this film for a few reasons: (1) the very compelling premise (a radio storyteller in the midst of his own relationship troubles starts receiving calls from a young fan who is trying to publish a book about his childhood abuse, only to realize this "Petey" may not be who he claims to be, if he exists at all); (2) Robin Williams played a serious role which is so rare - it was wonderful to watch him play a gay man (in what I thought was an unstereotypical way) who was so emotionally raw; (3) Toni Collette was DYNAMITE in her role as the "boy's adoptive mother" (she should have been nominated for her role); and (4) it started off in such a way that I was constantly trying to figure out what was happening, which kept me on my toes, so to speak.

However, somewhere along the line the movie missed the boat, and my above-mentioned reasons for wanting to love it were outweighed by the lack of fulfillment I had upon finishing the film. If I were a movie expert perhaps I would be better able to explain what exactly was missing from this film, but as a lay person I just felt like it didn't live up to its potential, despite the interesting plot and wonderful acting. The ending (I won't give anything away), while interesting, was completely predictable and didn't really make up for the fact that the viewer was "in the dark" for the first half of the film.

I wouldn't recommend buying this movie (or even renting it), unless you are solely interested in Toni Colette's performance which was great.