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Cellular opens with Jessica Martin (Kim
Basinger) sending her son off to school—then returning to the house to continue her
morning routine. Suddenly, the back door is kicked in, three armed men rush in, the
housekeeper is shot, and Jessica is kidnapped.
Jessica has no idea who
these men are or why they’ve taken her. Things become even more confusing when the head
goon, Ethan (Jason Statham), demands to know what her husband did with “it.” Jessica has
no idea what he’s talking about, and she’s convinced that it’s all a horrible mistake
until the thug mentions her husband’s name. Even worse, he knows her son’s name and
where he goes to school.
After smashing the phone that’s in the room, the
guys leave to track down their primary target. When Jessica sees them leave in her car,
she puts her training as a science teacher to work and hot-wires the destroyed phone to
call whomever she can reach.
After several minutes, she finally reaches
the cell phone of a young man named Ryan (Chris Evans). At first, he doesn’t buy
Jessica’s story about being in danger, and a lucky twist of fate keeps Jessica from being
disconnected when Ryan switches over for his call waiting. Her luck continues when she
convinces Ryan to take his phone to a police officer so she can tell them about her
predicament. When he hears Ethan threaten Jessica’s life, as well as her son’s, Ryan
then becomes fully vested in the situation.
Cellular was a
pleasant surprise. In the end, when the truth was revealed, it wasn’t anything that I
was expecting—and it was even more shocking to discover that true events inspired one of
the major plot twists. This is a well-written, fast-paced story that offers great
performances, including smaller appearances by Jessica Biel and Eric Christian Olsen.
Extras on the DVD include deleted scenes with or without commentary, several featurettes
(including one that shows the real-life story mentioned earlier), commentary, and
more.
GRADE: B+ (movie) A (DVD)
