THE NIGHT LISTENER Film Review - 7/9/06

This very low key slow burn film had a superb performance by an unrecognisable Toni Collette playing a blind social worker - Every time I see her in something she looks totally different; so different in fact that I usually don't realise it's her? Backed ably by a dishevelled and disgruntled Robin Williams as a radio show late night storyteller; who gets so involved in the horrific tale of an abused 14 year old boy, that he gradually is drawn into a spider's web of deceit and intrigue.
What is worse in fact is that the screenplay by Armistead Maupin based on his novel is inspired from true life events and the more that you look into the story in "reality" the stranger it becomes as people continue to propagate "fiction as fact". Unfortunately the performances aside (which are terrific) really can't save this film from a let-down ending and taking a very slow (and what feels like hours) time getting there. It's the actual story's subject of psychosis and mental aberration that is the real grist of the matter here.
I would certainly be interested in following up this film by reading Maupin's novel and also the "true" story that it was based on written as the "supposed" real life child's autobiography. It is true that "fiction is stranger than truth" and yes, that quote is as I meant to type it.