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PLOT: The line between reality and fiction blurs when a late night radio show host (Robin Williams) begins a long-distance phone friendship with an ailing 14-year-old fan (Rory Culkin) whose physically and sexually abusive childhood is the subject of his startling first memoir.
The most intriguing thing about the mystery-psychological thriller The Night Listener is that its based on the partially autobiographical novel of the same name by acclaimed author Armistead Maupin (Tales Of The City).
But instead of playing a novelist in the film adaptation, directed by Patrick Stettner (The Business Of Strangers), Robin Williams has been cast as public radio show host named Gabriel Noone.
Noone's late-night storytelling on his popular show, Noone At Night, has won him many fans and made him the toast of the New York literary set, where he's often asked to provide blurbs for new books.
It's in that position that the sensational manuscript of a 14-year-old boy makes its way to Noone via his trusting New York book agent (Joe Morton.)
At first skeptical, Noone eventually is impressed by the writing and maturity of the young writer (Rory Culkin), whose sexual and physical abuse at the hands of his parents and strangers is the nightmarish subject matter of the book.
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Intrigued, Noone establishes a long distance phone relationship with the boy and his caregiver (Toni Collette), who live in rural Wisconsin.
However, it turns out the boy is not physically well, and things get even stranger when Noone's estranged boyfriend (Bobby Cannavale) points out that the voices of the boy and the woman are eerily similar on their answering machine.
The Night Listener is best watched without knowing too much else, as the layers, and possibly the lies, are slowly peeled away when Noone sets out to investigate matters for himself.
As usual Collette (About A Boy, The Hours, The Sixth Sense) is creepily compelling to watch, even if a miscast Williams is clearly no match for her in the dramatic department.
Good Morning Vietnam this is not.
And the supporting players - Culkin, Cannavale, Morton and an underused Sandra Oh, who plays Noone's accountant -- are all perfectly good, although each screams out for more screen time.
Still, the script is smart, co-written by Maupin and his ex Terry Anderson, who lived the real-life story together, and their collective experience pays off here as they work with Stettner on the screenplay.
Meanwhile, the director knows how to provide some believable and eerie twists and turns -- as witnessed by his revenge thriller The Business Of Strangers.
Still, The Night Listener should have been a better film than it is and I can only think to blame Williams' lacklustre performance for ultimately letting the audience down.
BOTTOM LINE: A mystery-psychological thriller based on a real-life story should be better than The Night Listener is. But Toni Collette delivers another dynamic shape-shifting performance, even if Robin Williams is no match for her as a dramatic actor.
(This film is rated 14-A)