Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Susan Sarandon | ... | Hazel Micallef | |
Gil Bellows | ... | Detective Ray Green | |
Ellen Burstyn | ... | Emily Micallef | |
Topher Grace | ... | Ben Wingate | |
Donald Sutherland | ... | Father Price | |
Christopher Heyerdahl | ... | Simon | |
Kevin Parent | ... | Spere | |
Katy Breier | ... | Melanie Cartwright | |
Paulino Nunes | ... | Officer Mathieson | |
Ted Whittall | ... | Ian Mason | |
Amanda Brugel | ... | Officer Vongarner | |
John Ralston | ... | Andrew Pederson | |
Natalie Radford | ... | Glynnis Pederson | |
Alex Poch-Goldin | ... | Bob Chandler | |
Ella Ballentine | ... | Rose Batten |
Hazel Micallef is the senior officer in the Fort Dundas, Ontario Police Department. Once having tried to commit suicide and a resulting chronic back injury are the reasons she will never be promoted, the position of Commanding Officer, of which she is acting, having been vacant for some time. Hazel self-medicates to dull the emotional and physical pain. Relatively young and inexperienced but enthusiastic Ben Wingate transferring from the Toronto Police Department to join her and the only other detective, Ray Green, coincides with the first homicide in Fort Dundas in four years, the victim aged Delia Chandler, a friend of Hazel's mother, retired judge Emily Micallef with who single Hazel lives. Delia's throat was slit, but the coroner is able to determine that the murderer posed Delia's mouth post-mortem, with the time for rigor mortis to set in meaning that he/she had to hold the mouth in place for upwards of an hour. With two subsequent murders in nearby communities with similar oral... Written by Huggo
'The Calling' is one of those movies that never tries to stand out in any way. It never tries to shock its audience and win points with extra levels of violence or shocking plot twists that leave your mouth gaping open. It is simply content being a solid, well acted film that audiences can appreciate and then most likely forget. And that's OK. It's better than a film trying to be more than what it's capable of and turning into a bombsite. Director Jason Stone, in his feature film debut, made the call to go down this route and I think it was a good decision all things considered.
The movie has a solid cast, but not an overly exciting one. Susan Sarandon, Donald Sutherland, Topher Grace, Ellen Burstyn - all fine actors, however none of them are going to steal a scene or bring a lot of energy to the film. That was one issue with the film, was that it always felt a little flat. No real action scenes or plot twists can find the movie going through the motions, discovering clue after clue, until the final showdown and then it's over. Solid, but a little tedious at times. Nevertheless it's more watchable than a number of thrillers being released today and it certainly isn't going to offend anyone. Give it a look.