The Night Listener

Plot synopsis:
Gabriel Noone (Robin Williams), a popular gay New York City radio show host, is dealing with a separation from his partner, Jess (Bobby Cannavale). Noone is given a memoir written by teenager Pete Logand (Rory Culkin), who chronicles the many years of sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his parents and their friends. Diagnosed with AIDS, the youth has been adopted by Donna Logand (Toni Collette), the social worker who handled his case.
Noone begins a telephone relationship with the boy and Donna. He and Pete become increasingly close and form a father-son relationship, much to the dismay of Jess, especially after he speaks to Donna and suspects she and the boy are the same person. Noone's personal secretary Anna (Sandra Oh) adds fuel to the fire by discussing her research into people who fabricate elaborate stories to get attention. Determined to prove the boy exists and his story is true, Noone decides to pay a surprise visit to Pete in his hometown in rural Wisconsin. Noone discovers the return address on Pete's correspondence is actually a mail drop. Soon after, while eating in a local diner, he overhears another patron and recognizes her voice as that of Donna. He's stunned to learn she's blind and uses a guide dog. Noone follows her home and Donna senses he has followed her. She invites him into her home and talks openly about Pete, who she says is currently in the hospital undergoing tests. She assures him he can visit the boy the following day, then suddenly becomes angry and tells him she will not allow him to meet her son. Increasingly suspicious, Noone contacts all the hospitals in Madison, the site of the nearest facilities, but none have the boy registered as a patient.
Noone's paranoia about the boy's existence grows and, hoping to find proof of his existence, he breaks into Donna's home. A police officer arrests him for breaking and entering and then, mistakenly believing him to be one of the boy's abusers, attacks him with a stun baton before taking him to the station. Noone convinces the police he meant no harm and is released, only to find Donna waiting for him with the news that Pete is dead; also, that he was in a Milwaukee hospital, and was never in Madison. Distressed that Noone doesn't believe her, Donna collapses in the middle of a road and tries to hold him with her in the path of an oncoming truck. She then moves everything out of her home and disappears before the police can question her. Noone is now convinced that the boy is a figment of the deranged woman's imagination.
In response to a phone call from Donna, Noone goes to a motel where she was staying, and finds Pete's stuffed rabbit and a videotape under a blanket. He plays the video of a child, who seems to be Pete, but who could have been anyone. The phone rings and the caller claims to be the boy, waiting for his mother at the airport. The caller ends the conversation after Noone asks what happened in Donna's past and how she became blind. Pete's voice changes to sound more womanly, just as the conversation is cut off.
Noone returns to Manhattan and uses his experience to create The Night Listener, a new radio story. In the final scene, Donna is searching for a new home in a coastal town, telling the realtor she needs it for herself and her son, who has just lost his leg but will be released the next day. She has drastically changed her appearance and no longer has a guide dog or dark glasses, revealing her blindness was also an act.

Tags: storytelling

Review:
Unfortunately, if you read more than 3 lines into that same review, you discovered the poster's reason for disdain: he/she does not like the fact that the director is gay (or that the production team smokes crack...apparently).So, despite the fact that I have never written a review before, I thought this movie deserved one based on its merits, not the sexual orientation of its director.
Of course I really don't think that makes a lick of difference (the only thing that matters is if YOU like the direction), but I thought I should simply establish once again that I'm basing my opinions here on something both substantial and relevant...for example: not the sexual orientation of the director (or the alleged drug habits of the production team, LOL).Patrick Stettner's direction was moody and dark, and he allowed the angles and lighting to help create those so-sought-after feelings of "tension and release" rather than the messy, fast-paced camera-work and quick cuts we're so often subjected to today.
Robin Williams plays Gabriel Noon, a storytelling night time deejay who is going through personal issues: his lover moves out and Gabriel is having what seems to be a case of storyteller's block.
Fascinating atmosphere for telling a story and good performances from Robin Williams and Toni Collette, who I thought was the film's key character.
There were so many points where the film could've gone for the cheap thrill, but it never did, and that for me put this movie above so many of the mediocre thrillers that have come out lately...and for the last number of years..
The movie was predictable, opportunities for some really great suspenseful moments were missed...like missing ten free-throws in basketball - painfully annoying...this director shot, and missed...a lot.There's nothing inherently wrong with the film...it just screams, "Help me!
That is the premise of the film entitled " The Night Listner." It tells the story of a popular radio host called Gabriel Noon (Robin Williams) who spends his evenings enthralling his audiences with vivid stories about Gay lifestyles.
This movie is pure Robin Williams and were it not for Toni Collette who plays Donna D.
The Night Listener held my attention, with Robin Williams shining as a New York City radio host who becomes enamored with his friendship with a 14 year old boy (Rory Culkin) who is very ill.
In "The Night Listener" a late-night NYC radio storyteller named Gabriel (Robin Williams) talks to, and corresponds with, a 14-year-old sick boy named Pete, and his adult guardian Donna, who live in Wisconsin.
The Night Listener is probably not one of William's best roles, but he makes a very interesting character in a somewhat odd but very different movie.
When I saw this movie, the confused feelings that Robin Williams so brilliantly portrayed resurfaced in my mind.Toni Collette probably gives her best dramatic performance too as the ultimately sociopathic "caretaker".
(And some of these devices are blatant cheats, deliberately deceiving the audience by showing, as real, scenes that are only imaginary.)I'd compare this movie (unfavorably) with CAPOTE, which also drew on factual material but managed to create authentic suspense and a deep uneasiness in the audience by exploring the main character's conflict of interest in a matter of life and death; here, the motives of the radio personality played by Robin Williams (clearly the alter ego of author Armistead Maupin) are barely touched on.
to successfully make a slow paced thriller.The story unfolds in nice volumes while you don't even notice it happening.Fine performance by Robin Williams.
...but turn the lights off, be alone, and get into the "mood".I didn't quite know what to expect, and maybe that was the key for me to get inside this film.Robin Williams is good, he always is.
This is more a mystery/suspense vehicle through which Williams attempts to locate a sick boy and his keeper.Also starring Sandra Oh and Rory Culkin, this Suspense Drama plays pretty much like a news report, until William's character gets close to achieving his goal.I must say that I was highly entertained, though this movie fails to teach, guide, inspect, or amuse.
the movie itself wasn't too bad.in fact i found it compelling and engaging.Robin Williams is in the lead role,and doesn't make an impression either way.the star of this movie though is the extraordinarily gifted actress Toni Collette.her performance comes across as very genuine.if it weren't for her,this film would be a lot less watchable.but some credit should go to the writing,which is also strong.Joe Morton(also a very good actor) also has small role as does Sandra Oh.back to the movie itself.there are some good twists to keep thing interesting.some may find the going slow,and i could see how that might be.though i wouldn't call this a masterpiece by any standards,and Robin Williams has done better,with the strong writing and the inclusion of Toni Collette,i give it higher marks than it would otherwise get.for me,"Night Listener" is an 8/10.
Though Maupin co-wrote the screenplay adaptation with Terry Anderson and Director Patrick Stettner, some of the inherent magic of the story is lost in translation when the camera makes the novel visual.Gabriel No one (Robin Williams in a fine, understated serious performance), a writer who reads the 'fiction of his life' on a late night talk show, is having a writer's block, due in part to his devastation of losing his AIDS ridden but stabilized lover Jess (Bobby Cannavale), having nursed him for years but now feeling discarded so that Jess can feel life again.
A literary agent Ashe (Joe Morton) asks Gabriel to read a galley of a book written by a 14 year old boy Pete Logand ('Rory Culkin') who is describing his years of sexual abuse as a child and his current coping with AIDS in Wisconsin and is under the faster care of a social worker Donna (Toni Collette, once again proving there is no role she can't master!).
What I did appreciate was this story did not question the lead characters sexuality, or delved too deeply in to it and not question why he is gay or make a big deal out of it and I liked the 'real' portrayal of Gabrielle & Jess'relationship.
As a big Sigourney Weaver fan, Sigourney says that a good role should be able to be portrayed by a man or woman, like her recent portrayal as Lenny in the upcoming 'The TV Set' (which was originally penned Ben Stiller)and I think the same with regards to a character being straight or gay it should not matter or be the focal point of the film (well that's depending if the films subject is sexual or not).Anyway, this film does have it's highs and its lows - I'm glad I have seen it but wouldn't get it on DVD..
Robin Williams does a great job of acting , and it may be worth your while to see the film for this reason alone.
By the time I jumped forward to anything resembling a plot revelation, the movie was over.I expected the film to be good based on Williams' past performances in "Insomnia," "One Hour Photo," and "Good Will Hunting." Smack me one.
This is Hollywood where actors and actresses do it for the money moreso than the script.I have rented so many of these crummy movies from Blockbuster that their name should be "Lackluster Video." Anyway, do yourself a favor and steer clear of "Night Listener." Rent "Insomnia" instead...even if you have seen it already.ANYTHING is better than this..
If you like suspense, you may enjoy this film, which at least gives the audience some credit for intelligence (an increasingly rare feat, by Hollywood standards).Robin Williams (as in "One Hour Photo") gives a diverse, and strange performance.
Good cast headed by Robin Williams and Tony Collette and written by Armistead Maupin.It makes a promising start with the lead character Robin Williams, in a New York studio giving a reading of a short story for a radio broadcast.
Robin Williams is a gay evening radio show guy in the middle of having a conversational relationship over the phone with a 14 year old terminally ill lad, who wants to publish his life story before he croaks it.
There are a lot of Robin Williams fans out there and I think that this movie really showed his talent rather than the family comedies he does so often.
I went to see it because of Robin Williams and Toni Collette and the fact that it was compared to an Alfred Hitchcock movie (I've got to stop falling for that!) The story line while attempting to be a thriller had very little, if any, mystery.
One of Robins Williams worst films..if you don't believe me wait a few months it will be out on DVD because that seems to be a pattern for movies that don't do well in the theaters are out as rentals before the year is over...
It moves slowly and deliberately it does not rush the action but allows us to absorb the story before the big revelation.The movie stars Robin Williams as Gabriel Noonne, a nighttime radio host.
First, Toni Collette shines in this movie even her part is much smaller than Robin Williams, again proves she is one of the most versatile actress in Hollywood now, a very creepy performance you cannot miss if you're a fan of her."The Night Listener", a script created by a severely sick boy, was passed to a famous midnight radio DJ, who had just broken up with his boyfriend.
But when the DJ tried to meet the boy face by face, he found that the boy could be an imaginary person, curiosity made him continue to search for the truth...The whole story is fine although the first half of the movie is pretty boring, but after Toni Collette's role showing up, leading to the climax of the film, a very decent work.
STAR RATING: ***** Jodie Marsh **** Michelle Marsh *** Kym Marsh ** Rodney Marsh * Hackney Marsh Still recovering from a bitter break-up from his younger lover, gay radio storyteller Gabriel No one (Robin Williams) seeks solace in a story sent to him by a young man who claims to have been sexually molested.
With a well working script and a comfortable cast this movie seems to be a tad on the slow side, but armed with a cup of coffee I'd recommend you sit through this relationship drama with it's mystery-coated comments on the weaknesses of the human mind.The whole cast does a good job of finding their characters making them believable and colorful enough to tune in on an emotional level.Defining it as a thriller is however a bit of a stretch and could fool you into thinking it actually has an ending and that just might make you disappointed.It's too good for TV, but needs a subplot and a few more twists and turns at a faster rate for the silver screen..
The acting performances by Robin Williams and Toni Colette were excellent in this confusing story.
I always liked Robin Williams except when he is always on during interviews, but his acting gets better with each film.
Night Listener is without doubt one of the dullest films I have ever seen.There was nothing happening in this film what so ever - I didn't care for any of the characters, didn't buy in to the whole mystery type plot, didn't care how it ended....nothing.There is no comedy, no action, no thrills, no suspense, nothing.
Sadly, "The Night Listener" is all lameness.Supposedly based on a true story about a recurring phone conversation with a 14 year old boy that may or may not have existed, director Patrick Stettner ("The Business of Strangers") has a nice cast and an bland script to work with.
Robin Williams has proved to be very effective in this type of film ("One Hour Photo"), Toni Collette ("Sixth Sense", "In Her Shoes") is one of the best actresses working and the supporting cast of Joe Morton, Bobby Cannavale ("The Station Agent") and Rory Culkin (superb in "Igby Goes Down") would make most directors envious.Where the film fails is the utter lack of story or suspense.
i'm kinda torn with this movie,, interesting plot here, kind of makes you think about things,, you have this radio show host, who get to know one of his listener's who calls in with this "story" which you don't know whether to believe or not,, t he part i don't like is the gay part,, obviously because i'm straigt,, i don't know gayness just bothers the holy heck ou t of me,, anyways,, after i got past that little issue, i liked most of the whole movie,, except that it lacked somewhat in action,, and the ending i could have done without,, somewhere along the line,, the director, or writer missed something big time,, because this could have been a so much better movie,, had it been told a little differently.
In "The Night Listener" Robin Williams stars as Gabriel No one, a well-known author and radio talk show host who becomes intrigued by the dark, abuse tale told to him by a teenage fan.
Robin Williams stars as Gabriel No one an openly gay radio host who takes an interest in a regular caller, a boy suffering from Aids contacted via rape.
(Synopsis) Gabriel No one (Robin Williams), a radio show host begins by telling his intriguing life stories to his night listeners.
Unfortunately, in this case the true life events were likely more compelling than this bland adaptation.For a basic plot summer, "Night Listener" tells the store of a radio talk show host (played by Robin Williams) who takes a liking to a young boy supposedly dying from a terrible disease.
However, as the relationship builds, "Williams" has reason to believe that the boy may not be who he says he is (or even exist at all), thus leading to a personal investigation to find out the truth.Now, had the film actually stuck to that basic plot line, it might have been a halfways decent thriller.
Like I said, more focus on the mystery at hand would have made for a more compelling experience.Thus, I think a 1.5-star rating perfectly pegs this movie, as it was only good enough to make you want to see how things turn out in the end, not so much caring about the journey to get to that point.
Robin Williams plays Gabriel Noon(e), a radio talk show host who tells deeply personal (but often fictionalized) stories.
Not worth a minute of your time  I feel I have been violated  I couldn't finish watching it and I doubt I'll ever rent another film that has Robin Williams in a lead role - I only watch movies to be entertained so a film about a character whose life is even duller than my own and who seems to have fallen into depravity all to willingly just makes me stab at the eject button - I would vote zero if IMDb would allow it since a rating of one implies it has some small merit which it doesn't  billing this film as a thriller is blatantly deceptive and even calling it a drama is a misnomer since there isn't any dialog or circumstance that would even hold a viewer's interest  too bad there isn't a genre called 'swill' because that how this movie should be classified  consider yourself warned ..
I think Robin Williams and Toni Collette were both very good in their respective roles, but I don't think they had a lot to work with here.
I actually think the film did a good job of showing Robin William's state of mind surrounding his whole relationship with Jesse (or whatever his name was).
I am not convinced why Robin Williams becomes so obsessed with this boy.In summary, the film is too slow to be a thriller, and to bland to be a drama.
"The Night Listener" stars Robin Williams as a radio show host.
We are left with a lot of loose ends left untied at the end of the film which seems to have upset a number of our IMDb critics, but that's life.For my money, The Night Listener was an enjoyable good but not great movie and one I would recommend to friends..
Its themes linger long after the film is over.Gabriel No one (played by Robin Williams) is a late night radio talk show host.
Gabriel used parts of his relationship to create stories for his show, while Donna takes the idea further.Robin Williams's portrayal of Gabriel No one resulted in a very convincing performance which is as memorable as his 2002 film One Hour Photo.
He also acquaints himself with Pete's guardian,a woman named Donna(Toni Collette,brilliant!)and when Gabriel decides he wants to meet and talk to the two of them in person and goes to Wisconsin,he discovers some secrets he was(naturally)not prepared to find.Based on real events that happened to Armistead Maupin(who co-wrote the screenplay with Terry Anderson)and directed by Patrick Stetner,this film moves a lot faster(90 min.,maybe a few minutes longer)than one might think a movie of this genre would run.
In this "critically acclaimed psychological thriller based on true events, Gabriel (Robin Williams), a celebrated writer and late-night talk show host, becomes captivated by the harrowing story of a young listener and his adoptive mother (Toni Collette).
And, director Patrick Stettner definitely evokes Hitchcock - he even makes getting a sandwich from a vending machine suspenseful.Finally, writers Stettner, Armistead Maupin, and Terry Anderson deserve gratitude from flight attendants everywhere.******* The Night Listener (1/21/06) Patrick Stettner ~ Robin Williams, Toni Collette, Sandra Oh, Rory Culkin.
It's one of the better movies of the summer.Robin Williams gives one of his best performances.