The Calling

No offence to the parties involved but if you’re a writer who has penned a thriller about a serial killer influenced by dark aspects of religious history, the last people you’d want to see playing police on the trail of the killer would be the guy from Ally McBeal, the one from That ‘70s Show that isn’t Ashton Kutcher or Mila Kunis, or a former star who hasn’t reached the heady heights in a very long time. But Donald Sutherland as a guilt-ridden priest and Ellen Burstyn as a retired judge? You’d take that, right?

This is the frustrating thing about The Calling - it gets some things right and then just undoes a lot of its good work.

Sarandon, a sheriff of a small Canadian town, suffers from depression, a bad back, a drinking problem, and a nagging mother (Burstyn) who is on the first murder case in four years. Bodies are turning up horribly disfigured and their faces are manipulated into frozen horror poses. Maybe it’s that weird guy in town, the softly spoken skinny man with kind eyes, beard and a long black jacket (Twilight’s Christopher Heyerdahl)? Helping Sarandon out are an unsure Bellows and an ambitious Grace…

Sarandon’s performance sums up the mood of the film. A depressed middle-aged woman buoyed by pills and anti-depressants, which are then levelled out with alcohol, Sarandon is unsure what mood she’s supposed to be in, or what she’s supposed to feel, at any given moment, and she ends up zoned out, nullifying herself. There’s the odd raised eyebrow, when not hidden behind dark shades, when there’s an unexpected but that’s about it from Sarandon. She’s no Margie Gunderson. And this is no Se7en. It’s not even Copycat.

Debutant Stone opts for realism over sensationalism. This isn’t a thriller of car chases, shootouts and the like - this is more a contemplative affair. Kudos to Stone’s attempts to keep things grounded but his scenes just sit there. The Calling is dull. It plods through its procedural dialogue. It’s killer might be memorable but the exposition-heavy reasons behind the rituals are too dreary to furrow a brow, and the ending is a cop out.

Not terrible. Just not good.