The Landline Detective

Cleverly written mystery. Cleverly presented.

Clearly low-budget. Some of the voice acting is amateurish. But this movie is well-worth the watch.

The simplicity of the action and of the set would make this a great stage play.

I have never sat through a 1 act film with so much enjoyment before! It is clever, witty, simple, enjoyable and even funny, and very well acted by ALL. The thing that struck me the most was that what the people said on the phone IS what you would say, and it was great! Well written, with everything you need in a film. A triumph! Congratulations.

I enjoyed this film much more than I expected even though the voices on the phone were obviously not those of trained actors. The main character James Furuta (Dann Seki) was marvelous and held my attention the entire time, no small feat.

As a Japanophile who lived many years in Japan, and hopes to return to live there permanently, I loved that the story focused on the interconnectedness of the Japanese-American community, which reminded me of life in Japan. And I loved the usage of old photos of Japanese-Americans appearing intermittently on the screen as the story progressed, representing some of the characters from the murder mystery rooted in past events, but would have preferred them in sharp focus before the film's end to make the characters come to life in the present.

Entertaining and something different than the usual murder mystery fare and all without vulgarity or bloody, violent scenes.

If you appreciate excellent acting, imagine an entire movie with only one actor. A movie that holds your attention because of that 1 actor's ability and well-written dialogue. Oh sure, there are other voice actors, but the one on-screen actor holds this story together. You are forced to imagine the scenes, just like reading a good book. I was so impressed!

Considering the entire movie consists of one single man in the same room; most of the time sitting in the same chair, talking on the phone you'd think it would be boring. Not at all! Jimmy is sorting through old family photos so they can finally be put into albums. Something which he and wife have meant to do for years. He's decided while his wife is on vacation with friends, he'll do it. While he's going through the pictures to put them in chronological order, he comes across a Polaroid that puzzles him. After calling his daughter, who'd taken the picture as a child 35 years ago, he begins to realize that the seemingly innocuous photo holds a clue to the still unsolved murder of his sister-in-law. He starts calling people to try to put the pieces together and figure out what happened.