Maintaining his reputation as one of Hollywood's most inconsistent directors, Joel Schumacher bounces back from last year's
"Bad Company" debacle with the excellent "Phone Booth," a tight, suspenseful little drama whose moralistic streak is downplayed while its sweaty tension is played up. Colin Farrell, who had his breakout role in Schumacher's "Tigerland" (2000), plays Stu Shepard, a manipulative Manhattan publicist who, as one observer says, "puts the ‘ho' in ‘show business.'" Bustling around mid-town at a break-neck pace, he is dogged by his eager young assistant Adam (Keith Nobbs), who has another cell phone call lined up for him as soon as he's finished the one he's on. Adam is learning the tricks of the trade, which, coincidentally, involve a lot of trickery and a lot of trading. Lying is part of Stu's job, but you get the feeling he became a publicist because he's a good liar, not the other way around. He certainly enjoys fibbing enough to practice it at home, where his beautiful wife Kelly (Radha Mitchell) has no idea he's been flirting with Pamela (Katie Holmes), a naive young actress who doesn't know Stu is married.
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