Mr. Harrigan's Phone

When I saw the trailer for this film, I was kind of excited since it's based on a story for Stephen King, and the premise was interesting, plus the two main lead actors (Donald Sutherland, Jaeden Martell) are definitely great.

As the story progress, I kept waiting for the cool parts to start happening, but sadly they hardly ever happened, and all we saw is a big indirect advertising campaign for iphone (not that Apple needs it), but seriously the whole movie is based on the iphone.

Another thing that got me confused is how the movie's genre says "horror" but it has no such thing, it's very misleading, it's more of a drama thriller.

I loved the parts when Craig was reading to Harrigan, and how their relationship got stronger, in spite of the vast difference between them.

I guess the main message the film is trying to convey is the effect of modern technology (in this case the smartphone) on our lives, and how it completely disengage us from the real world, and end up controlling us and feeding us lies. And also to be careful what we wish for.

"When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers". Oscar Wilde.

Starts out a a good drama/thriller type movie then continued on for about half of it. Got to know the characters, sets things up pretty well, all is good so far. Then the thriller part ramps up some and it gets more and more exciting. Up until that point I thought it was pretty good.

Then it kinda turns into a coming of age film. Nothing wrong with those types of films but it felt really strange here.

Then it flips back to the drama/thriller.

Then it ends kinda...meh.

The whole movie feels like its trying to shove a message in our face about being attached to our cell phones too. I dunno it just gave me a really bad weird vibe to it.

I watched "Mr. Harrigan's Phone" on Netflix last night. It is based on the short story of the same name by Stephen King. It is about a young man (Jaeden Martell) recruited by a billionaire (Donald Sutherland) to read to the old man since the man's eyesight is failing. Of course, since this is a Stephen King novel, there is a mystery involved with a hint of horror. But the main part of the story is the development of respect and friendship between the old man and the young man. It is very well acted by the two leads and is definitely worth a look. Some horror fans were disappointed by the lack of gore, but to me that is not the point of the story. Check it out for yourself and see if you agree. 7/10.

Just finished watching and was pleasantly surprised. I didn't think that Mr Harrington's Phone would be a good enough storyline to be brought to the big-screen but, evidently, it has. The people moaning about it not being scary are way off. The short novella was really good but it was more of a drama like the movie. The movie does differ on some aspects of the source material and I don't know why it did as it worked perfectly fine in the writing. All I'll say is, don't expect horror. You'll not at one single point be scared, but the book never tried to be. It's just down simply as horror as that description goes down well with movie descriptions and Stephen King.

We live in an 'instant age.' We're used to getting what we want immediately. So, anyone giving this film a bad review probably didn't understand the need to focus and apply patience to a story that unfolds gradually. It is impeccably written. All the story setups and essential bases are cleverly covered. It is brilliantly made with authentic characters supported with superb acting. It moves at comfortable pace with no dull moment or drawn-out, unnecessary scene. An all-round excellent film. Give it a chance and be receptive to rare, excellent storytelling. It could be one of the the best films you've seen in a long time.