On the Line

At first glance, radio doesn’t seem to be the most dynamic world to base a film in. It’s a world of stationary voices, with images filled in by the listener’s mind. But there have been exceptions. From Oliver Stone’s Talk Radio to Barry Levinson’s Good Morning Vietnam, to the early scenes of Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King, some great films have taken place around radio. The best of these are built around a strong, often extreme, personality. This is the path that Romuald Boulanger’s new film On the Line attempts to take as well, with Mel Gibson starring as “shock jock” Elvis Cooney. Unfortunately, this film never reaches the heights of those earlier radio films.

We are introduced to Elvis Cooney as he is leaving home for his midnight radio spot. He’s a family man, with a young wife and a toddler-age daughter. He seems devoted to them, but there are early signs that he’s not as nice professionally as he is in his personal life. He yells at coworkers, taunts new switchboard operator Dylan (William Moseley), and refuses to learn the full name of an immigrant security guard. While Elvis is treated by some as an institution (we learn later that he has been in the business for over 40 years), his boss lets him know that his ratings have plateaued and that he needs to get with the times and dig into the world of social media. On the air, Elvis dispenses blunt advice to his audience of “nocturnal emitters” (one of several charming nicknames Elvis has for his listeners).

The film cruises into its plot when Elvis takes a call from a man named Gary. Gary states that he’s going to do something bad tonight, and Elvis eventually teases out of Gary that he is at Elvis’s house, and is planning to kill Elvis’s family. Gary says that Elvis’s cruel treatment of his girlfriend, who worked for the station for a short time several years before, led to the woman’s suicide and he is looking for revenge. The first twist comes when police send word that Elvis’s family is not at home, but there has been no sign of a break-in. The revenge plot becomes increasingly elaborate, with drones, hacked security systems, and a series of explosives throughout the building.

On the whole, On the Line is a disappointing film. However, the one positive throughout is Gibson’s performance. He isn’t doing blockbuster films anymore, but he is still giving his all. His Elvis runs the gamut of emotions, with a late-film breakdown as powerful and convincing as some of Gibson’s best work. Throughout the film, Gibson remains the charismatic force on-screen that he’s been for decades. Most of the rest of the cast does decent work with smaller roles, but this is Gibson’s show from the beginning. One thing that seems odd during viewing is that most of the cast has a European accent of some variety. While Los Angeles, the film’s setting, is a cosmopolitan area, this still comes off as strange. It makes more sense reading afterwards that the film was wholly shot in Paris.

Boulanger, in his second feature film, shows promise. From the limited sets and single star actor, it certainly seems like the film must be relatively low-budget. But it rarely looks like it. Boulanger makes the most of what he has, and comes up with some clever set-ups. However, the script, also by Boulanger, is the film’s great weakness. Dialogue often feels flat, and some plot devices make little sense. It also strikes a wrong, and distracting, note that a terrestrial radio station in the U.S. would allow swearing at the level this station does, even on a midnight shift. There is also a wild series of turns near the end that take the film from a clichéd-stakes thriller to a no-stakes oddity. This undoubtedly worked well for the short film this script was based on, but it really lets the air out of a feature.

Recommended for fans of Gibson, as it’s some of his best acting work since Dragged Across Concrete, but others can avoid.

ON THE LINE opens in select theaters, including Detroit, and will be on VOD platforms on Friday, November 4th.