Title: Private Number
Arc Entertainment
Director: LazRael Lison
Writer: LazRael Lison
Cast: Hal Ozsan, Nicholle Tom, Tom Sizemore, Judd Nelson
Running Time: 95 minutes
AVAILABLE ON VOD AND IN-THEATERS: May 1, 2015
Michael Lane (Hal Ozsan) is a recovering alcoholic with writers block. He and his wife Katherine (Nicholle Tom) are living in somewhat harmony until they are awakened by phone calls at 2:44am, and the caller asks, “Remember me?”
The lack of sleep starts to take its toll on the couple, causing them to argue. Michael starts to hallucinate dead people, bottles of whisky and his black “Knight” character from his novels. Michael’s visions bring up the names of real dead people, and he feels it’s the ghosts of murder victims wanting his help to solve their murders.
Michael finds a pattern in their deaths, that they’re all killed in the style of a serial killer: Thrill, Power, Lust, Visionary, Comfort. Katherine appears to believe Michael after he falls off the wagon, when strange things start to happen. She gets sick and starts having seizures; and Michael believes these spirits are trying to possess his wife because he’s getting close to solving their murders, but there’s one final victim that he needs to solve – the visionary.
The Good: The M. Night Shyamalan twist ending, which was almost sort of Hitchcockian as well.
The Bad: The whole film would’ve been better if they wrote a buildup to go with the twist ending. I didn’t care for all of the red herrings (Judd Nelson’s sheriff for one) and useless characters. Tom Sizemore as Michael’s AA sponser, there’s a stretch. Honestly I think they just hired him for his name. I found nothing exceptional in his character or Nelson’s. Could they get a worse actor than that annoying kid? That next door neighbor was pointless if only to show Michael as an uppity douchebag. The film title is misleading. The phone calls weren’t even a major plot point. Then again they couldn’t title it Remember Me because that would’ve given away the twist.
Private Number is one of those films you toil through to get to the kinda-cool ending. You waste an hour and a half, or you get entertained. Is it a ghost story or is it all a bender hallucination? Either way I would’ve just cancelled my landline.
Story: C
Acting: C
Technical: B
Total Rating: C
Reviewed by JM Willis
