Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2003: Kiefer Sutherland in Phone Booth

Kiefer Sutherland did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying The Caller in Phone Booth.

Phone Booth is an effective thriller, though as with any Joel Schumacher film to describe it as purely good is always difficult, about a man Stu (Colin Farrell) who is forced to stay in a phone booth as he is tormented by an unseen sniper. 

Although there are other characters in this film the essential drama is carried by two performance, one being the near one man show offered by Colin Farrell as the man seeing his life of lies unraveling around him while also being terrified, and the voice of a sniper. Originally played by Ron Eldard, whose other work suggests to me why he was replaced by Kiefer Sutherland. Sutherland is an actor who I am getting to in this endeavor of mine for the first time, and he might one of the most random actors ever in terms of what he is going to bring to a role. On the outset of this film though we know that Sutherland will be bringing something special, that being his deep cutting voice. This for all essential purposes is a vocal performance, and I won't treat that as any kind of limitation in this instance, because it isn't for Sutherland. He plays the unseen sniper who begins to antagonize Farrell's Stu, a man we see as a somewhat amoral huckster who is contemplating cheating on his wife and in general seems to have a selfish attitude towards life. Sutherland comes as the threat of the film, and that is instantly obvious from just the innate intensity of his work, as he begins by speaking of Stu's mistake by turning down a pizza he sent him. Sutherland's voice work is remarkable in that he opens without obvious intensity, in that he's not yelling or anything, however the particular tone of his voice instantly puts one on edge. 

Sutherland's voice is of the true voyeur, in that one tweak away and he'd be the voice on an adult phone sex line. It is the brilliance of his performance really that the almost alluring quality in his voice in itself also is the threat of it. This as the caller speaks towards Stu with a familiarity, even honestly a kind of seductive quality that makes his initial slip-ins of his knowledge of Stu's personal life, including his wife and potential mistress, all the more unnerving as his intention is clearly not just to make Stu scared, but to also oddly entice him into following his orders. Although the caller's motivations are stated sorta later on, a point I will get to, and state what is perhaps the worst aspect of the film, I think one can more so garner this from Sutherland's performance than what his character states bluntly later on. This as Sutherland portrays this sense of self-satisfaction from every word he speaks to Stu and names all of Stu's secrets. Sutherland portrays the caller as someone who obviously gets his kicks from the activity of this particular torture. This as Sutherland is nearly orgasmic in the voice, and wholly in turn creates this disturbing psychopathic tendency of the caller. The caller who Sutherland crafts as very much a predator playing with his prey, this particular as he reveals that he has a sniper rifle. Revealed so potently by Sutherland "Doesn't that just torque your jaws", and speaks it with this wonderful delight as it sparks such fear into Stu.  

Now Phone Booth is not a film I consider great, and not exactly good in the most precise turn, as if you scratch it all it crumbles, however it is often compelling, and the reason why are the two central performances. While Farrell I think shows both signs of his later greater work, and some of the limitations of his earlier work, Sutherland however is simply on point throughout. When the film works is when Sutherland is speaking, and he takes the concept of the man stuck into the phone booth with a killer on the phone to its promise. Sutherland's sinister playfulness captures the right tone for every beat to create menace, while also being an entertaining villain. When the caller claims to be Vietnam vet Sutherland brings the expected darkness as he speaks towards the trauma, before bluntly laughing it off as an obvious falsehood based upon his age. Sutherland accentuates every point of the drama that is there to great effect, and I'd say Sutherland was entirely primed to make a great film based on this premise, as he has the technique down all in just his voice. Now there is briefly one live action portion of the Sutherland at the end of the film, which I hate the most. This where Stu has seemingly escaped the ordeal though sedated and visited by the caller. The caller who reveals himself to be a morality serial killer, a trope that I hate so much when played straight by the filmmakers which will obviously be the case for Schumacher. Anyway aside from that plot point, which I don't like, Sutherland doesn't play into that which I appreciate, playing the caller as purely a fiend. This right down for his brief live action scene of just is there really there just for glance, a well performed glance of sinister intent, however that isn't the point of this performance. The point of this work is a weapon in vocal form, a mental weapon, and there Sutherland is a brilliant tormentor, and this is great performance, that makes the most of a premise, that the film itself can't quite live up to wholly.