The Night Listener (film)
The Night Listener is a psychological thriller starring Robin Williams, Toni Collette, Sandra Oh, Joe Morton, and Rory Culkin. The screenplay was written by Armistead Maupin, Terry Anderson, and Patrick Stettner, and the film was directed by Stettner. Differing substantially from the novel of the same name by Maupin, the film adds numerous thriller elements not found in its source.
The plot centers on Gabriel Noone (Robin Williams), a popular gay radio show host who is dealing with the separation from his long-term partner, Jess (Bobby Cannavale). Noone, who finds it increasingly hard to get inspiration for his radio show, is given a collection of memoirs to read and review, by Ashe (Joe Morton) his publisher. The book is written by a teenager named Peter Logand (Rory Culkin), who claims to be a victim of incest, child molestation, and rape. He is also diagnosed with AIDS.
Gabriel begins a telephone relationship with the boy and the boy's adopted mother, Donna (Toni Collette). Gabriel and Peter become increasingly close and form a father/son relationship, much to the dismay of Gabriel's ex-boyfriend Jess.
Gabriel's relationship with Pete continues to grow until Jess hears a telephone conversation and comments on how Donna and Pete's voices sound very similar. Gabriel's friend, Anna (Sandra Oh) only adds fuel to the fire by talking about her research into people who fabricate stories for attention or love. Also, no one Gabriel can find has ever actually met the boy and disputes about his existence cause a great disruption to Gabriel's life leading to his decision to go to Pete's hometown in Wisconsin.
After trying to track him down at the address that was on letters sent from Pete, Gabriel finds that the address was a PO Box. After further attempts Gabriel finds himself eating in the same diner as Pete's stepmother Donna, by recognizing her voice — although Pete never mentioned that Donna is blind and uses a guide dog.
Gabriel follows her home and she senses that he has followed her. She later reveals the man at the PO Box store informed her of his arrival. Donna invites Gabriel into her home and talks openly about Pete, who she says is currently in hospital due to his AIDS. She eventually becomes upset with Gabriel, and refuses to take him to meet Pete. Gabriel, acting on his own, can find no hospitals nearby that have any record of a "Peter Logand" ever having been a patient.
Gabriel's paranoia about the boy's existence grows, and he breaks into Donna's home using a brick to smash a window. A police officer subsequently finds Gabriel and arrests him for breaking and entering. When he informs the officer that he was looking for Pete, the policeman mistakes Gabriel for one of the child molesters mentioned in Pete's book, and pulls his cruiser into an empty field where he repeatedly attacks Gabriel with a stun baton. Eventually, Noone convinces the police that he meant no harm and is released. He immediately runs into Donna, who is waiting for him outside the police station. He confronts her about Pete; she claims he has died, and that is why Gabriel hasn't been able to see him.
Distressed that Gabriel doesn't believe her, Donna collapses in the middle of a road and tries to hold Gabriel with her, in the path of an oncoming truck. Her attempt to take their lives confirms in Gabriel's mind everything that he had suspected, that Donna has made up the whole story.
Gabriel returns to the city and attempts to move on from Donna, who is now nowhere to be found. Gabriel uses the story as inspiration for a new radio story, "The Night Listener," something that he had been unable to compose for a long time.
The film ends with Donna applying for a new home, claiming that she needs the home for both herself and her sick child, who had just lost his leg. She has drastically changed her appearance and is notably no longer using her guide dog and had always had her vision.
[edit] Trivia
- The story for The Night Listener was inspired by actual events that happened to Armistead Maupin, the writer of both the book and the film.
- There is a deleted scene where Gabriel returns home to find Donna in his house where she tries to attack him before he finds out that she is not really blind.
- The MPAA gave The Night Listener an R rating for language and some disquieting sexual content.
[edit] External links
|
