A psychological thriller that revolves around the celebrated writer and popular late-night radio show host, Gabriel Noone, who develops an intense relationship with a young listener named Pete and his adopted mother, just as his own domestic life is undergoing changes. When a troubling question arises regarding the boy's identity, it causes Gabriel's ordered existence to spin wildly out of control as he sets out on a harrowing journey to find the truth.

The movie broaches a few very touchy subjects, like child molestation and homosexuality that are there to stir emotions up in you that you might not feel otherwise. But that’s not what the movie is about it might have been more of what the book was about but the movie is something entirely different. The movie feels more like a Stephen King novella where you are not sure what is real and what is imaginary as it spins a tale of disbelief. If I had not know going in that the movie was based on true events and the phone relationship that one writer had with a boy and how his disbeliefs led him to investigate whether the boy was real or not, I might have taken the movie differently. I might have seen the movie as another kind of Secret Window where you don’t know what’s real and what’s not. But knowing these facts are what led me to be a little disappointed in the movie. I don’t think they established the relationship, the kinship that the movie needed between Robin Williams and Pete. You don’t feel that connection that these two were supposed to have as the movie rushes to quickly into the realm of disbelief and the Stephen Kingish like mystery quality the movie embodies.

This might be one of those movies that it is better to read the book first and then see the movie because I seemed to be missing a lot of elements that might have been explained better in the book. I never felt the connection between the characters and I don’t think I understood Pete or Gabriel for that matter as well as I should have. The movie forces us to read between the lines where I get the feeling that the book might spell it out for us better. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the movie because I did. I felt myself drawn into this world of deception and lies and disbelief where you are not sure what is real and what is not. But I just got the feeling I was missing something extra something that might have made the movie even better and what made the book so acclaimed.

I have stopped trying to understand Robin Williams as an actor because he seems to have to rhyme or reason in how he chooses roles. It seemed after much comedic success he wanted to be known as a more serious actor and began to take deviations with darker and more disturbing roles which really have changed how we view him as actor. But in a year where he returned to the silly comedy genre in RV we get a movie like the Night Listener that again tests Williams on how good of actor he is and how well he can sell a role. He does sell the role although you never really see him as the homosexual radio host but more as the kind of man who is fighting his own demons and finds a life raft in another who as faced darker waters. But just when he finds himself secure on this life raft he has it ripped out from under him and forcing him into a plan of madness to find the truth. Toni Collette does a good job counter setting him as you are never sure about her which is the point. I found myself enthralled by the movie at the same time wondering more about the back story that is surely found more in the book.

Grade: B-