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Cellular
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It took Larry Cohen [1936-2019], the inspired
writer-director of B movies including Q –
The Winged Serpent (1982), two decades to see his Phone Booth script reach the screen in 2003. Joel
Schumacher took care of the directorial duties on that one; the unlikely
combination of his slick moves with Cohen’s often surreal plotting turned out
to be a winning formula.
The script-to-screen process has mercifully
moved much faster for Cellular, an
exciting thriller based on Cohen’s story idea, and written by action-genre
specialist Chris Morgan. The hook here is that every plot move proceeds via
telephones, especially of the mobile (or, as Americans say, cell) variety.
Jessica (Kim Basinger)
is kidnapped by a mean, swaggering dude, Ethan (Jason Statham). She secretly
rigs up a smashed telephone just long enough to allow her one random call, and thus
connects with Ryan (Chris Evans). He is a carefree, and also morality-free, guy
who can hardly bring himself to worry about his own girlfriend, let alone a
stranger in distress.
But, soon enough, Ryan comes to believe
Jessica, and swings into gear to find and save her. From this point on, the
movie is a non-stop series of breakthroughs, complications and reversals to
rival Speed (1994). Director David R.
Ellis carries it all off with the flashy style he made his own in Final Destination 2 (2003).
Cellular offers a curious mix of
elements. Its lowbrow jokes and car-chase set-pieces play to male teens, who
are obviously being asked to identify with Ryan. Like in 8 Mile (2002), Basinger juices up this part of the movie by incarnating a sexy mother-figure. Naturally,
the film tries to convince us that Ryan, as a result of his chance adventure,
is on the fast-track to greater maturity.
By the same token, it is full of clever
gags about pop culture fads that will appeal to those in the know. The
soundtrack, for example, makes good use of Nina Simone in techno remix. But the
most intriguing aspect of the project is its other remix – its take on the
vision of urban life offered in high-drama mode by Michael Mann’s stirring Collateral (2004).
Like that movie but with more laughs, Cellular portrays the modern city as fragmented,
every citizen atomised by virtue of their mobile-phone
fixation, and thus anonymous and interchangeable. It is a sign (probably) of Larry
Cohen’s innate genius that all the action clinches refer back, often
ingeniously, to this theme (forecast long ago by Alfred Hitchcock in key
details of North by Northwest [1959]).
Yet, ultimately, these telephones – because
of their strict geographic reach – also cohere the action plot, pulling all the
fragmented urban spaces and isolated characters together. It is a neat trick
for such a fundamentally modest entertainment.
MORE Ellis: Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco © Adrian Martin February 2005 |
