The Listener

A very small film that feels like Steve Buscemi trying to gain his confidence behind the camera, but it doesn't really work out.

Buscemi and Thompson utilize the complementary power of stillness and the close-up to create a portrait of a woman who hears so much and divulges so little.

While "The Listener" has the feel of a one-act play, that’s easily forgiven when the performer on the stage is this refined, and the filmmaking here is solid without ever being showy.

What Buscemi and screenwriter Alessandro Camon craft with “The Listener” feels like a throwback to the features of the 1970s. It’s a character study, a moody atmospheric piece of contemplation...

Modest but thoughtful and timely.

“The Listener” plays in all aspects like a project conceived in the most self-searching and self-indulgent depths of the isolation era. It’s hard to imagine audiences wanting to enter that headspace now.

If you love a good thriller along the lines of the Hitchcock classic SORRY WRONG NUMBER - you are going to love The Listener

Thompson is magnetic here and in a busy world with so many action-packed yet often hollow movies, it’s refreshing to see one that offers a brief escape from life’s noise.

Despite some of Beth’s haunting confessions, by the end of The Listener, I felt personally comforted by Thompson, and I can think of worse things.

The film is a gimmick, no doubt, but still a very effective one.