Long Distance

I saw the premier show of Long Distance in NY. I am not an enormous fan of suspense/thriller movies, however I found this one to be spot on. The ending took me entirely by surprise. I would rank the twist in the end to one of my all time favorites "The Usual Suspects". This is a movie you have to see again to determine what you missed the first time around. I will be looking for this movie to come to Boston so I can see it again. The length of the movie seemed about right, I didn't find myself looking at my watch at any point during the show. I found it interesting that the pool was not included in the original script and in the end it fit in so well with the story line. Great picture!

The film sets up nicely with a misdialed phone call to a serial killer in progress. I like the idea because it is fresher than the "I know you are alone" call. However, in hind sight, this leads to the most probable ending (which the movie has) because otherwise the motive for the serial killer's pursuit could become far fetched and unlikely.

The acting was okay. The driving force of the film is the desire to find the identity of the serial killer and the motive.

There are definitely many areas for improvement including script, set, special effects and ambiance. There was a somewhat too light tone of acting; maybe if the script demanded it, it would not have seemed noticeable.

very original suspense film about a lonely young girl(Monica keena)who dials a wrong number by one digit and gets in touch with a serial killer at large.its one of those movies you really have to pay attention to.Monica keena who i know from Freddy vs Jason is a very good under rated actress.who should get recognized for her role in this independent but very good movie.i recently seen this on the sundance channel expecting a slasher movie,but was very surprised.and there's a surprise twist ending thats very Hitchcock like.this movie will give new meaning to the feature on your phone called caller id.i have to commend the sundance channel for picking fine movies like this,i would'nt call this so much a slasher movie,but a suspense in a class with Alfred Hitchcock's dial m for murder and psycho.I'm hoping to see more of Monica keena in more movies.although Freddy vs Jason does'nt look too good on her resume but remember thats how brad Pitt(cutting class)and johnny depp(nightmare on elm street)started.i loved long distance its a very good movie,and very original.kudos to Monica keena,she rocks.Hollywood take note move over Reese Witherspoon.

When Nicole (Monica Keena, best known for being in early seasons of HBO's "Entourage") dials a wrong number inadvertently and leaves a message. A killer calls her back using Caller I.D and sets in motion a series of events that seem to be culminating in the psycho going after her. Something even the detectives whom she convinced to help her may be powerless to stop.

Monica seems to be doing the best with what she's been given, but the plot is just too clichéd for me to actually care for the movie that much. It didn't help that the character of Nicole was so insanely stupid that I couldn't care less if she lived or died. Add to this the fact that the movie,while only an hour and a half, seemed to drag on & a twist ending that adds insult to injury. All in all moderately well-acted but tedious movie with an awful ending.

My Grade: D+

Long Distance starts shakily enough. Monica Keena (who it took me a while to remember as Rachel from "Undeclared") plays Nicole Freeman, a recently-jilted post-grad Psych major working on her thesis in a run-down former middle-school-now-apartment-building in Boston (great quirky/creepy locale, by the way). One night she accidentally misdials a number and gets a call back from the guy she reached, who happens to be a serial killer on a cross-country rampage headed for...well, you know.

Nicole goes through a series of phone exercises at the beginning of the film that are now very familiar to all those who've seen Scream and its many predecessors and progenitors. These calls are much of the usual mental torment/mind f*** crap, and they don't really hold the menace they need to relay. This trope is getting so old, it's really hard to make this scenario seem anything but a parody. Keena's acting, which is middling at best --- she seems, if anything, a bit too young for the part --- doesn't help.

Still, Long Distance isn't badly written. There's something vaguely enticing about a woman who's sucked into playing live "bait" for a wacko on a nationwide trek. It's worked by the screenwriters with an almost playwright's inventiveness. It keeps you watching and if you analyze the script in retrospect, it's actually pretty clever in the placement of clues that set up the plausibility-stretching denouement.

But that's really the crux of the problem with this overall earnest, well-intentioned shoestring indie: you shouldn't *have* to go back and put the pieces together...they should make more of an impact the first time you experience them.

I'm giving this one high marks more for what it could have been than what it is, but I'd caution you...it's not for the unobservant or those who need a big-picture sheen on their thrills.