Halle Berry on the mainline

Halle Berry stars in “The Call” as a veteran dispatcher for the 911 service in Los Angeles. She takes a call from an abducted teenage girl (Abigail Breslin) that leads to her confront a haunting incident from her past.
“The Call” is something of a comeback for Berry, who slowed down a bit to spend more time with her daughter Nahla Aubry. Now, at 46, she’s expecting her second child, her first with fiance Olivier Martinez. She’s been sporting a baby bump while reprising her role as the weather goddess Storm in the upcoming “X-Men: Days of Future Past”.
Brad Anderson (“The Machinist”, “Transsiberian”, “Vanishing on 7th Street”) directs “The Call”, which is billed as a “high-concept thriller”. The medium-budget flick performed solidly enough at the box-office that the middling critical response it got in the US didn’t really matter.

Also opening
“After Earth” – Will Smith continues to flex his Hollywood muscle in an effort to make his son as big a star as he is. Read about how that worked out in the story at left.

“Hummingbird” – It seems there’s a new Jason Statham movie every week or so, and the latest offering has the British bruiser as a homeless ex-soldier in London. He takes another man’s identity, slips on a tuxedo and proceeds to beat everyone to a pulp. Steven Knight, screenwriter on such films as “Eastern Promises” and “Dirty Pretty Things”, writes and directs.

“Angels” (“Nang Fah”) – Much has changed in the time since this movie was conceived at Sahamongkol Film International. Its director, writer and star, Bongkot “Tak” Kongmalai, married tycoon Boonchai Bencharongkul and has a baby on the way. Yet there she is, shimmying around in a revealing outfit in what’s billed as her directorial debut. It’s the tale of three showgirls in a Pattaya cabaret. Jularlak Julanon and Ratha Po-ngam, Tak’s castmate from the recent “Jan Dara” remake, also star. We’ll see more of Ratha later this month when the Ryan Gosling crime drama “Only God Forgives” is released.

Also showing
Swedish Film Festival – Get in line early to grab your free tickets for the Swedish films screening until Sunday at SFX the Emporium in Bangkok. The offerings include the drama “The Crown Jewels” starring Bill Skarsgard and “Happy End” with Bill’s older brother Gustaf. There’s comedy with a cross-dressing airline pilot in “Cockpit”. “I Miss You” is a youth drama about twin girls separated by tragedy. “Stockholm East” deals with star-crossed lovers in a railway station. And the documentary “Palme” looks back on the life of slain prime minster Olof Palme.

“Comme les autres” – The Alliance Francaise screens free movies with English subtitles at 7.30pm every Wednesday. Next week’s show is a 2008 comedy directed by Vincent Garenq. It’s about a couple who are split on the prospect of having children.