Any less of a charismatic leading actor and this film would have been dead within the first 15 minutes. However Hollywood's current bad boy, Colin Farrell, uses that animal magnetism of his to full advantage as a man pinned down in a phone booth by an unseen sniper. Watching a man trapped in a phone booth for 90 minutes could get old extremely fast, but Farrell sinks his teeth into this character, compelling the audience to join him in that crowded space for the hour and a half it takes for the film to unfold.

"Phone Booth" takes place almost entirely inside a public phone booth on a busy New York street. Self-absorbed publicist Stu Shepard (Farrell) uses the phone booth on practically a daily basis to call a woman he?s interested in having an affair with. After one such call, the phone rings as he's about to leave and instinctively he picks it up. On the other end of the line is a menacing caller who claims to have Stu lined up in his cross-hairs. The voice demands that Stu remain in the booth and place phone calls that could destroy his marriage and ruin his all-important professional reputation.

Stu can't hang up the phone, so the killer warns, or he'll be shot. He can't alert passersby or they'll be shot. Stuck in the booth, he's forced to ward off anyone who tries to get him out, including a couple of hookers who use the phone to do business. When a business associate of theirs tries to intervene, Stu finds out the hard way just how serious a mess he's stepped into.

Colin Farrell's living large and, so far, his wild private life doesn't seem to affect his work.

Fans seem to like actors who live a little on the edge, and Farrell's definitely out there. Between rumors of a rendezvous with pop queen Britney Spears and the announcement of the birth of his first child, Farrell's gobbling up headlines faster than tabloids can pound them out. Every generation of actors needs someone like Farrell to liven up things, someone to grab the spotlight and shake it up a bit, and Farrell seems to relish that role. Now if only someone would tell him he'd have a longer life (and thus longer career) if he'd just lose that ever-present cigarette. It's beyond me what anyone finds attractive about that disgusting habit ? but I digress. Farrell makes "Phone Booth" into a decent thriller by utilizing his acting talent, yes, acting talent, so who really cares about his off-screen life, anyway?

"Phone Booth" is not an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but it does manage to hold your attention quite effectively. The fact that it succeeds as much as it does rests squarely on the shoulders of Colin Farrell. The voice of Kiefer Sutherland is almost too recognizable to be creepy and that element works against much of the suspense, or at least it did for me. The plot might have played out better if it wasn't so easy to put a face to that voice. That issue leads straight to why I hesitate in giving "Phone Booth" a better review. That, and the fact that "Phone Booth" is another one of those films that suffers greatly because of how the story draws to a close. Suffice it to say that having to leave the theater during the last 15 or so minutes wouldn't necessarily be considered a bad thing.

GRADE: B+ for an hour and 15 minutes and C- for the final 15 minutes. I'll compromise and give it a B-.

Cast and Crew List/ Photo Gallery