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'The Night Listener': Intriguing, if a bit uneven

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In "The Night Listener," Robin Williams plays Gabriel Noone, the host of a late-night radio talk show in New York that mostly consists of his telling somewhat embellished stories based on actual events from his life. "Like a magpie, I tend to steal the shiny stuff," he admits. "And I disregard the rest."

The shiniest stuff in this interesting but uneven psychological thriller is Toni Collette. As Donna, a needy, overprotective, somewhat secretive woman, she gives the sort of internalized, in-the-moment performance that's all the more dazzling once you figure out where this film is going. Which, alas, you may figure out sooner than director Patrick Stettner intends.

Miramax Films

'The Night Listener'

B-

The verdict: Intriguing but uneven, with a fine performance by Toni Collette.

Director: Patrick Stettner
Starring: Robin Williams, Toni Collette, Rory Culkin, Joe Morton, Sandra Oh
Run time: 91 minutes
Release date: August 4, 2006
Rating: R for language and some disquieting sexual content.
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Based on a novel by Armistead Maupin ("Tales of the City"), "The Night Listener" is about the relationship that evolves between Gabriel and Donna. When he reluctantly agrees to read a manuscript — apparently written by her foster son, Pete (Rory Culkin) — handed to him by a publisher friend (Joe Morton), Gabriel is amazed. It's a well-written, exceedingly raw first-person account of the pedophiles who sexually abused Pete for years.

Now 14 and suffering from AIDS (he had syphilis at 8), the kid is also a huge fan of Gabriel's show. So when Pete actually calls from Wisconsin, the radio host is surprised. And flattered. And vulnerable. With his own life falling apart — his younger lover of 10 years, Jess ("The Station Agent's" Bobby Cannavale), has just called it quits and the radio station is impatient for the five new shows Gabriel owes them — Pete (and sometimes Donna) offers a sympathetic ear. To the point that we're not exactly sure just who the titular night listener is supposed to be.

Gabriel's accountant friend Anna (a lively Sandra Oh) doesn't think things are quite kosher. The boy and his mom are becoming increasingly intrusive, keeping Gabriel up to date on Pete's illness and treatments and just about anything else that happens to them. "Aren't they being a little melodramatic?" Anna asks at one point.

So Gabriel flies to Wisconsin in the dead of winter to find out for himself. And that's when things get really creepy.

With its shadowy staircase and old-dark-house basement, the movie can't help but conjure up memories of "Psycho." And there's a touch of the little-seen gem "The Stepfather" (starring "Lost's" Terry O'Quinn) in Collette's oh-so-caring mother.

Ultimately, the film veers off-course into pure melodrama and a trickled-out ending that apparently was also a problem in Maupin's book. But Williams is quite fine; his Gabriel sometimes recalls his preoccupied doctor in "Awakenings." And Collette is, well, wonderful and utterly different from the character she plays in the don't-miss sleeper "Little Miss Sunshine."

Meryl Streep isn't the only dame doing Oscar-worthy work this summer.