Kiefer Sutherland: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

5 Awesome Performances...

5. The Caller - Phone Booth

The voice. It's all about the voice. It's no wonder that Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear Solid video game series, hired Kiefer Sutherland to provide to dulcet tones of Solid Snake for the latest games in the franchise. In this underrated little movie directed by Joel Schumacher, then, which has Colin Farrell trapped in a phone booth whilst a sniper - played by Sutherland - looks on and terrorises him from afar, Sutherland's performance lives and dies by his ability to control his voice. We never really see much of him, and yet the voice literally says it all. If the movie itself doesn't make all that much sense - does it really need to? - the interplay between Farrell's trapped character and Sutherland's enigmatic villain, billed merely as "The Caller," works wonders. Obviously a movie set in a single location had to ensure that the one on one banter between its protagonist and antagonist worked well, but together they are brilliant. It's difficult to make your presence known in a Hollywood film using just your voice alone, but just as Scarlett Johansson did recently in Her, Kiefer Sutherland near on steals the movie with his.
Contributor

Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.