DENISE CALLS UP
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1996 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 6.5 Alternative Scale: **1/2 out of ****
United States, 1995 U.S. Release Date: beginning 3/96 (limited) Running Length: 1:20 MPAA Classification: PG-13 (Profanity, sexual situations) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Alanna Ubach, Timothy Daly, Caroleen Feeney, Dan Gunther, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Liev Schreiber, Aida Turturro, Syvia Miles Director: Hal Salwen Producer: J. Todd Harris Screenplay: Hal Salwen Cinematography: Mike Mayers Music: Lynn Geller U.S. Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
It's the era of e-mail, call waiting, answering machines, and cellular phones -- a time when impersonal communication has replaced interpersonal communication. Nights spent hanging out have given way to electronic chat group get-togethers. Generation X'ers live their lives in comfortable isolation, never having to face friends or enemies. At least that's how Hal Salwen presents things in DENISE CALLS UP, and, for a certain segment of the population, Salwen's scenario doesn't exaggerate much.
If talking on the telephone is a weak surrogate for real human contact, then the men and women of DENISE CALLS UP are seriously deprived. None of them ever congregate. They spend their lives in front of a computer and on the phone. They date, fall in love, fall out of love, have sex, and even die with a receiver pressed to their ears. Whole relationships begin, climax, and end without either of the parties ever knowing what the other looks like.
DENISE CALLS UP is basically a seven-character, two story play. Both of the main plotlines involve characters developing relationships with people they've never met. There's Jerry (Liev Schreiber) and Barbara (Caroleen Feeney), a couple who goes on a blind phone date. After a few awkward, getting-to-know-you calls, they discover that they like each other, and, while neither has time to meet the other in person, they spend steamy nights engaging in phone sex. Then there's Martin (Dan Gunther), who one day gets a call out of the blue from Denise (Alanna Ubach). It seems that he once donated a sperm sample to a bank, and Denise was the recipient. Now, she's eight months pregnant with his child, and, having learned the father's identity, she has decided to contact him. Hovering around these characters are three friends -- Frank (Timothy Daly), Gale (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson), and Linda (Aida Turturro) -- disembodied voices offering advice and support.
One of the problems with DENISE CALLS UP is that it takes its excesses to excess. As intriguing as the premise is, I'm not sure it can support a feature-length movie (even one as short as eighty minutes), and the second half of DENISE CALLS UP (with the exception of a riotous conference call) is far less fresh than the first half. In addition, Salwen's presentation is often cynical, sometimes bordering on cruel, and this attitude makes it difficult for viewers to care about the characters. The last scene rings hollow because the people involved don't mean that much to us.
On the other hand, there's no doubt that Salwen conveys his message. DENISE CALLS UP isn't a vacuous comedy -- it has something to say, and the humor, some of which is quite funny, represents Salwen's method of preaching. Special mention should also be made of editor Gary Sharfin's work. Much of DENISE CALLS UP's best comedy involves quick, expert cuts as the camera shifts back and forth between as many as six characters using call waiting to stay on the phone at the same time.
DENISE CALLS UP is light enough that it doesn't demand much range from the performers, all of whom are fine for their roles. The actors do their best to mold likable characters, but sometimes the script's glibness defeats them. So, while Salwen has formed an interesting portrait of modern social interaction, his cynicism works against the movie's success. DENISE CALLS UP might have been more effective if the writer/director had taken the time to create characters imbued with more than token traces of humanity. As things stand, everyone in this film is little more than a voice on the other end of the phone.
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@bc.cybernex.net web: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin
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