Director Joel Schumacher (“Batman Forever”, “The Client”) has made a clever and very intriguing thriller set in one of the most enclosed spaces possible. It’s scary because it could happen to anyone.

In “Phone Booth”, publicist Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell “Total Recall”, “DareDevil”) steps inside a phone booth to call his mistress (Katie Holmes “Batman Begins”) but then receives a call from a mysterious man (Kiefer Sutherland “Dark City”, “Young Guns”) threatening to kill him if he leaves the phone booth. Stu must do as the man requests not just to save himself but the people in the surrounding area.

Director of “Escape From New York” John Carpenter once talked of how he believes like the heroes in his film, an intense situation could make a hero out of anyone and this is what this movie does. Colin Farrell does a very good job playing the average guy. Kiefer Sutherland is very creepy as the mystery man credited as ‘The Caller’. Forest Whitaker (“Platoon”) is okay as Captain Ramey. It’s interesting to see a movie focus on such a small group of people so the performances have to be good and while Whitaker is just alright, the other two key performers do so well it still manages to work.

“Phone Booth” is not a long movie so if you worried about spending time watching it then this will only take a short amount of time from you. My problems with the film are Whitaker’s performance and the overuse of bad language throughout. The reason why the film is so successful is because it could happen to you next time you walk into a phone booth in a busy city. Movies that can realistically portray these realistic situations are always a good watch. It also will excite you a lot as well. Even as a novelty value the film works as 90% of the film takes place round a phone box.