Dir. Patrick Stettner
Writ. Patrick Stettner, Armistead Maupin, Terry Anderson
Act. Robin Williams, Toni Collette, Rory Culkin

I am just thinking, what is the most important thing a story, or a movie should have? Beginnings are important, after all it's hard to start a movie without a beginning. Characters are important too. I mean if you don't have characters in a movie, or a story, what is it really about? But no, to me that is not the most important thing about stories or movies. To me the most important thing is, oh I don't know, what is the word I am looking for? Oh yeah……ENDING! That is what this movie is lacking, an ending. This movie also shows that truth is not always stranger or better than fiction.

Gabriel Noone, played by Robin Williams (RV) is a night time radio psychologist who tells stories about life. However, due to his break up with his domestic partner Jess, played by Bobby Cannavale (The Station Agent,)he has been unable to work. His friend Ashe, played by Joe Morton (Stealth) who is a book editor, gives Gabriel a book written by a 14 year old boy Pete, played by Rory Culkin (Signs.) The book goes into detail about the sexual abuse of the boy by his father who had sold him as a sex slave, with the permission of his mother. Pete was told to write the book by his therapist/ adopted mother Donna, played by Toni Collete (In Her Shoes.) Gabriel starts a relationship with the boy and his mother over the phone as he tries to comfort and inspire the child towards the end. However, when Jess hears Pete and Donna on the phone, he notices that the tones of their voices are exactly the same, but at different pitches, and suggests that they are the same person. Gabriel goes to Wisconsin to prove that there are two different people, but when he gets there, he discovers that all doesn't seem to be right with Donna.

For 1 hour and 30 minutes, I felt that this movie was intense. I loved Robin Williams as the meek yet have no fear radio dude trying to get to the bottom of the mystery. However, Toni Collete was the real star because she did the quiet psycho character wonderfully. From the minute she was on screen and her blindness was shown, she was freaky. Not that I am saying blind people are freaky, just she WAS freaky. You knew that there was something not right about her. You knew that she was up to something and you didn't know why. These two actors were wonderful.

It's hard to compliment and condemn the same person or people, but writers Patrick Shettner, Armistead Maupin, and Terry Anderson are to be condemned and compliment at the same time, although I will give a mulligan to Maupin because he was a newbie. The reason why I compliment them is that they turned this true life story, Maupin's actually, into a very thrilling and compelling story. They kept the tempo of the story fast but made sure that it wasn't going to fast that the audience couldn't keep up. The characters were well written and real, which is hard to do in this era of the "based on true events world." However, the problem with the story lies in the fact that they didn't apply the artistic license to change the true life end of what happened, which was nothing, and changed to anything. Why is this bad, well because anything is better than nothing. To take the audience on a great ride for an hour and a half and then end with, we don't know if the boy is real or not, just plain sucks. Even if that is what happened in real life, change the f*cking ending to make it better. This movie was completely ruined because of the ending and I blame writer/director Patrick Shettner for not changing the ending, and wasting two great performances.

In conclusion, I will say that if you want to see two great actors, then pick up this movie, or if you like wasting your time for two hours because the ending sucks ass, then this is your movie, else skip it. By the way the only reason this doesn't get the worst possible rating is because of Williams and Collette. I really hope we will start to see the end of this "based (or inspired) by true events" after all isn't everything inspired by true events in some way or the other?

Brian - the Naked Gun