Directed by Patrick Sterner
Written by Armistead Maupin, Terry Anderson, Patrick Sterner
Starring Robin Williams, Toni Collette, Bobby Cannavale, Joe Morton, Rory Culkin, Sandra Oh
Release Date August 4th, 2006
Published August 3rd, 2006
In 2002 author Armistead Maupin, best known for the New York portrait Tales of the City, began a correspondence with a fellow author. This was, however, no respected colleague of Maupin's but rather, a teenager whose book was a chronicle of abuse and redemption. The author and the kid shared letters, then phone calls and eventually Maupin was promising the possibility of cash and gifts to help the kid and his adopted mother in their time of need.
Eventually however, cracks in the teens story began to show. Something began to nag at Maupin, who, along with his editor, began to suspect that this extraordinary teenage author did not exist. The hoax was later revealed to have taken in not only Mr. Maupin but a number of journalists and talk show host Keith Olbermann.
The story of the hoax became the source of a unique new novel from Mr. Maupin called The Night Listener, in which Maupin morphed the story of this child con-man, revealed to be woman in her thirties, into a thriller involving a national radio host and a hoax involving a teenage writer and his creeptastic caretaker. The Night Listener is now a major motion picture starring Robin Williams as radio host Gabriel Noone. Known for his storytelling, most often taken from his own life as a gay man in New York City, Gabriel has a national following that happens to include a young cancer patient and author named Pete Logand.
Through his book editor, played by the terrific Joe Morton, Gabriel begins a correspondence with Pete that begins with letters, progresses to long detailed phone conversations, and eventually the promise of money to help with the treatment of Pete's cancer. As in Armistead Maupin's real life experience, the cracks in the story begin to slowly emerge. Questioning Gabriel's intense commitment to his young unseen friend, Jess (Bobby Cannavale), Gabriel's ex-boyfriend, begins asking important questions that Gabriel had overlooked.
With his faith shaken by these questions and pressure to send help to the seemingly dying boy, Gabriel travels to where he believes the boy lives with his adopted mother Donna (Toni Collette), and what he finds begins the unfolding of a very compelling mystery thriller that never seems to go the way you think it will. Patrick Stettner directs The Night Listener outside the typical beats of a thriller. His interest is more in the story than in shocking audiences with bloody twists and turns. Allowing his story and characters to invent the tension, Stettner crafts a strong atmosphere and let's the thriller aspects of the film grow around the story organically.
Robin Williams delivers his best dramatic performance since his Oscar winning role in Good Will Hunting in The Night Listener. His Gabriel is a loving but wounded older man in just the perfect position to be taken in by this hopeful, worshipful young boy. Williams makes all of Gabriel's actions in the film feel natural and believable, never overplaying the shock or dismay that Gabriel encounters throughout the picture.
Sadly, if there is a weak link in The Night Listener, it is Toni Collette's Donna who is something of a creepy cartoon in the film. Near the end, as the plot reveals itself, Collette has a scene that redeems much of her performance in just a few lines but overall, a dialing down of her persona throughout the movie would have helped the picture immensely. There are little problems with The Night Listener, but thanks to the performance of Robin Williams and the sure handed direction of Patrick Sterner, in his second feature following 2001's The Business of Strangers, The Night Listener is an easy recommendation for anyone who enjoys a well acted, compelling mystery based loosely on a true story.
