THE LISTENER (Tribeca 2023) – Review by Valerie Kalfrin
In the wee hours of the morning, a woman walks onto her porch, talking on the phone with someone she’s just met. The caller, a college professor freshly out of a job, has no close family or friends—and no rational argument against killing herself.
She didn’t always think this way, she says, her voice calm, analytical. “Sometimes the energy to live exceeds the benefit.”
What to say to someone like her? As the conversation unfolds over twenty-six minutes in the meditative drama The Listener, we’re riveted, a testament to the power of empathy and connection in a world often aching with loneliness.
Debuting at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, The Listener focuses on Beth (Tessa Thompson, Creed III, also a producer), a helpline worker and the only character we see onscreen. She gives a thoughtful and nuanced performance as Beth chooses words carefully, trying to gauge whether she can offer outside services or if the caller just needs to know they’re not alone.
Beth works from home, not a call center, on the night shift, but director Steve Buscemi and cinematographer Anka Malatynska (NCIS: Hawai’i)use this to emphasize her isolation, too. She meanders through her house from dimly lit rooms in blue to a dining table or desk warm with yellow light, a bubble of brightness and solace. While on the phone or between calls, she feeds the dog, makes coffee, does yoga. Sometimes she sketches what she imagines the callers look like or objects they mention, such as a boot or a tent.
She might have a long stretch before someone calls again or only moments after someone has cussed at her or hung up. Sometimes a creep appears on the line. With a shift of her eyes or a contemplative stare, Thompson shows Beth processing these moments to start fresh for the next person.
Buscemi (Miracle Workers) relies on a lot of medium shots and closeups as Beth finds a rapport with her callers, which comes through in the script by Alessandro Camon (The Messenger). She’s more successful with some than others, such as an ex-Marine with insomnia (Jamie Hector, We Own This City) and a woman with a mental illness (Alia Shawkat, The Old Man) who says she can see Beth’s voice: “It’s blue. It’s got a little green in it.”
Although the film starts slowly, it builts to a standout scene in the lengthy call with the freshly unemployed professor, voiced by Rebecca Hall (Resurrection). Hall creates a whole character through her voice, talking to Beth at first like a friend, asking how the night has been. As she challenges Beth about finding meaning in life, she’s so intellectual and exacting, she inadvertently strikes a nerve, such as when she describes how unhappiness creeps up slowly, always ashamed of itself.
The press notes for The Listener say the film aims to bring attention to counselors like Beth and also heighten awareness for 988, the national Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. It also implies the need for real people on these helplines, not chatbots, such as the one the National Eating Disorders Association shelved recently for giving people weight-loss advice.
Most of all, The Listener shows the toll that this type of work can have. Taking these calls is a type of penance for Beth, and while she doesn’t weep over her callers’ troubles, she wonders when they disconnect whether she’s helped them or hurt them more.
It’s essential for her and others like her to come up for air and connect with the world, too.
