The Night Listener Worth Tuning Into

     Some of Robin Williams’s best acting occurs in small, dark motion pictures like One Hour Photo and The Big White. That tradition continues in The Night Listener, a Hitchcockian thriller inspired by true events. It is a sincerely suspenseful mind-bender that requires the moviegoer to come to their own conclusions and allows them to become totally engulfed in the sinister world in which it takes place.

     Besides the stupendous Williams, the movie also stars Toni Collette who gives one of the best performances of her career. The Night Listener is a psychological trip – that is for sure – but I was surprised to discover that the feature is actually quite scary. There is no blood or gore, just extremely eerie surroundings and very creepy characters enveloped within an honestly spellbinding story.

     Williams stars as Gabriel Noone, a late-night radio show host, in The Night Listener. Gabriel is in the midst of a difficult breakup with his boyfriend Jess, played by Bobby Cannavale, when he begins conversing, via telephone, with his biggest fan – a young boy named Pete, played by Rory Culkin. Pete is hoping to publish a non-fiction book about how he was sexually abused and is now living with AIDS.

     Pete is being taken care of by Donna Logand, Collette, who Gabriel also speaks with quite often. Jess points out that Pete and Donna’s voices sound oddly similar and this leads Gabriel to believe that Pete does not really exist. His friend Anna, played by Sandra Oh, shares the sentiment and Gabriel decides to take a trip to visit his two phone-pals and eventually finds himself in the middle of one of the strangest unsolved mysteries of all time.

     Truth be told, there is still something to be desired by the end of The Night Listener as it is only 80% satisfying. There are a couple of trip-ups along the path (If Pete doesn’t exist then why do we see him in the beginning of the film?) but the majority of the flick is hard-hitting entertainment. The story will keep you guessing from start to way beyond the final credits and you will most certainly have a chill down your spine. The Night Listener joins the ranks of some of the best motion pictures of the summer.