Theoretically, “The Night Listener” couldn’t be more relevant – even more so now than in 1992, when the events occurred that inspired Armistead Maupin’s book and, in turn, Patrick Stettner’s film.
Its ideas about fact vs. fiction, reality vs. imagination and the blurry line in between have become all too familiar following the recent exposure and subsequent downfall of writers like James Frey.
And many journalists still feel the long, dark shadow of the legacy left years ago by Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass. So there should be a sense of urgency and immediacy to “The Night Listener,” to the way in which it approaches the notion of truth and turns it into a matter of perspective demanding to be mulled over.
It does leave you guessing until the very end and even afterward, if you choose to continue the debate. What really happened – could anyone possibly know for sure?
In leaving those questions for the audience to internalize and interpret, Stettner as director and co-writer (with Maupin himself and Maupin’s former partner, Terry Anderson) has crafted a sophisticated, grown- up mystery, and a welcome challenge. Yet it unfortunately feels truncated, and the 82-minute running time suggests there was a lot more going on.
Maupin’s partially autobiographical story begins life as a drama. New York talk radio host Gabriel Noone (Robin Williams) receives a book about a 14-year-old boy named Pete, detailing horrific physical and sexual abuse at the hands of his parents. The writer is the boy himself (Rory Culkin), and the story is remarkably mature for someone his age.
Pete is a fan of Gabriel’s show, listening from his bedroom in the house he shares in small-town Wisconsin with his adoptive mother, Donna (Toni Collette). He’s also dying of AIDS – at which point you’re thinking, this is going to get painfully heavy and maudlin.
But then the film shifts gears when Gabriel begins a telephone friendship with him, and the two discover an unexpectedly easy rapport. Gabriel also talks frequently with Donna, who provides medical updates when Pete’s condition deteriorates. Feeling needy and sad after a recent breakup with his boyfriend, Gabriel finds himself increasingly dependent on these people he’s never met.
We should probably stop here to preserve the many surprises “The Night Listener” has in store. There are elements that will draw inevitable comparisons to films like “Talk Radio” and “Play Misty for Me,” both for the medium they share and for their dark, deliberate sense of mounting suspense. Culkin offers a performance that’s both spirited and heartfelt, while Collette is completely disarming as the woman who protectively cares for him. And yet there are other parts of “The Night Listener” that you wish were more fully developed.
The relationship between Gabriel and his ex-boyfriend (Bobby Cannavale), for example, feels half-baked. And Sandra Oh, who has consistently proven herself as an engaging, intelligent actress, is sadly underused in just a few scenes as Gabriel’s assistant.
Ultimately, “The Night Listener” is more admirable for what it tries to be than for what it actually achieves.
“The Night Listener” | ** 1/2 RATING
R for language and some disquieting sexual content|1 hour, 22 minutes| DRAMA|Directed by Patrick Stettner; written by Stettner, Armistead Maupin and Terry Anderson; based on the novel by Maupin; photography by Lisa Rinzler; starring Robin Williams, Rory Culkin, Toni Collette, Bobby Cannavale|opens today at area theaters.
