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Long Distance (2005)

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Overall Rating 52%
Overall Rating
Ranked #8,998
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When a young, lonely woman misdials a phone number by one digit, calling into a serial killing in progress, the killer latches onto her and involves her telephonically in a string of murders as he heads closer and closer to her home in Boston. --IMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: October 30, 2011
We're coming to an end of my recent "Watch and review the dozens of movies that are set to expire this week on Netflix" marathon, and thus far, it hasn't been a very good run. Most of these movies have sat in my queue for so long because, although they showed a glimmer of promise (thus my queuing them up), I sort of had the feeling that I would be disappointed if I actually sat through them. So, there they sat: a handful of movies that I would get around to watching "some day", and that "some day" came about because it was either watch them now or never watch them at all. I've been right about a large majority of those movies, but then I fired up Long Distance and thankfully broke the trend.

It all begins innocently enough. Young Nicole (Monica Keena) is sitting at home talking to her mother on the phone when the conversation takes a turn for the worse. Nicole hangs the phone up in a fit of rage, but realizing that she may have been acting immaturely, she calls her mom back to apologize. Whoops, wrong number. She hangs up and calls her mom back, the two talk for a while, and then she settles down and decides to go to bed.

That's when the phone rings. That wrong number she called? Well, it turns out that she called the house of a woman who was in the process of being murdered by a serial killer, and now the serial killer wants to talk to her. As the days pass by, the killer continually calls her from the scenes of his crimes, and even though Nicole eventually gets a police officer (Ivan Martin) and an FBI agent (Tamala Jones) to stay with her every hour of the day, it may not be enough to save her. You see, the calls are getting closer and closer to her, and it's only a matter of time before the killer drops by to talk in person.

Taken at pure face value, Long Distance is a damned effective thriller. The premise is intriguing, and Monica Keena's acting chops were enough to keep things interesting even when the pace slows down in between calls. There is this build-up of tension throughout the film, knowing that the two will eventually come face to face, and the entire thing just works out as good as one could hope for from a movie like this. Seeing the lead actress do just about everything right (calling the cops, taking their logical advice, etc.) and still getting outsmarted made things all the better.

Then, the movie hits that obligatory twist ending that all thrillers are required to have these days. There will be two camps of people who see that ending: those who think that it was well-played and imaginative, and those who think that it was completely stupid. Personally, I liked it. I've seen it done before in a few other films (to say which would ruin the surprise), but it works here and wrapped the movie up in a satisfying fashion. Your mileage may vary on how well it worked, but I enjoyed it and I'm the one writing the damned review.

In fact, there's really not many negative things that I can say about the movie. There's a few things, but we'll get to that in a second. You see, the story is solid, the pacing is perfect, and although I wouldn't hand out any acting awards, everybody in the film is either "great" or at least "acceptable" in their roles. I'll concede that not everybody will enjoy the twist ending, but leading up to that, you really can't rightfully say that the movie wasn't enjoyable.

As mentioned, there are a few negatives to be found, but they're nothing that will destroy your viewing experience. The most glaring error is the handful of flashback sequences sprinkled throughout the running time. Now, these flashbacks will make sense once you see the twist ending, but up until that point, they are just random scenes inserted here and there, and they break up the tension that the movie otherwise creates. Maybe we could have done with less of these or maybe they could have been presented in a better way, but as it stands, they just didn't work for me.

The other problem only occurs a couple of times, but when it happens, it just ruins the ongoing scene. I am referring to the musical side of things, and in particular, the illogical choice of music for the given scenes. For example, one scene finds Nicole talking to the killer on the phone and learning something particularly devastating. It's a good scene and it furthers the plot, but it is absolutely ruined by the crappy rock music that plays over it. Another scene has generic dance music, and still another has Lilith Fair-inspired alternative. The song selections in these few scenes just did not work, and I question why nobody in the production phase realized this. Maybe they owed some bands some favors, who knows.

Anyway, with those few errors aside, Long Distance is still an enjoyable thriller, and I'm going to give it a recommendation. It tells a great story, it creates and maintains the proper mood for a film like this, and personally, I enjoyed the twist ending. It's not a perfect movie, but it is a great one. 8/10.
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