The Obsessive Viewer

Directed by: Brad Anderson

Written by: Richard D’Ovidio

Starring: Halle Berry and Abigail Breslin

Release Date: March 15th

There were a few things that bothered me when I saw this trailer before Zero Dark Thirty last month.

1. If I ignore the nagging feeling that a 911 operator would never hit redial on a call from a hysterical girl hiding from an intruder, there’s still Halle Berry’s suggestion to the intruder that he leave. An operator telling a criminal to leave the scene of a crime should probably look at a different career field.

2. The trailer includes a FLASHBACK to a scene shown earlier in the trailer! I think that says more about the public’s dwindling attention span than it could say about the movie. But it also tells me that the people who made the trailer don’t think the people who will want to see it can hold their attention span for more than 2 minutes.

3. The trailer gives away too much of the story. This is a criticism of an overall trend in movie trailers. Clips used in trailers should really only come from the first half (maybe 1/3) of the movie.

Then again, it doesn’t seem like The Call has enough compelling footage in its first half to fill a 2.5 minute trailer.