Doing a late shift at her cleaning job at an office building, Beth (Sarah Booth) is dead worried when she hears her 12 year old hasn't come home at night, and since she has forgotten to charge her phone, she relies on the office phone to learn news about his whereabouts - when Scott (Daved Wilkins) calls, a total stranger to her who was actually hoping to reach a helpline. Of course, Beth has a whole different set of problems right now, but she hears in his voice he needs somebody to talk to, and she also could use a little distraction so they start to talk - and gradually, Scott opens up to Beth, and his life story turns out to be a sad one, as he's an unemployed alcoholic, he's divorced, and has a troubled relationship to his daughter. Also, he's deeply depressed and drinking while on the phone, and it doesn't long for Beth to realize he's anticipating suicide - and suddenly, what started as a distraction has become the center of Beth's attention, and even though she doesn't know him, and everything he says about himself isn't exactly to his advantage, Beth knows she cannot let this man die - but what can she do, she doesn't have the training to deal with a situation like this, knows nothing about Scott, not his full name nor his address of even phone number to send someone by for help, and she has to relie on him not hanging up - but the situation gets more and more loaded the longer the call goes on ...

On a technical level alone, Last Call is already quite an achievement as it's told split screen throughout in two corresponding single takes, one of Beth and one of Scott - but the real achievement of the movie as such is that this approach doesn't feel forced and doesn't draw too much attention to itself, as the film focuses more on a well-structured story, and is very nicely carried by its two lead actors who give it their all playing carefully fleshed-out, believable characters, while very dynamic camerawork makes sure that the film remains visually interesting throughout despite the limited locations. So in all, it's actually a very compelling and compellingly told movie - that happens to be quite a technical achievement on the side.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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