The Landline Detective

Considering the entire movie consists of one single man in the same room; most of the time sitting in the same chair, talking on the phone you'd think it would be boring. Not at all! Jimmy is sorting through old family photos so they can finally be put into albums. Something which he and wife have meant to do for years. He's decided while his wife is on vacation with friends, he'll do it. While he's going through the pictures to put them in chronological order, he comes across a Polaroid that puzzles him. After calling his daughter, who'd taken the picture as a child 35 years ago, he begins to realize that the seemingly innocuous photo holds a clue to the still unsolved murder of his sister-in-law. He starts calling people to try to put the pieces together and figure out what happened.

I have never sat through a 1 act film with so much enjoyment before! It is clever, witty, simple, enjoyable and even funny, and very well acted by ALL. The thing that struck me the most was that what the people said on the phone IS what you would say, and it was great! Well written, with everything you need in a film. A triumph! Congratulations.

I enjoyed this film much more than I expected even though the voices on the phone were obviously not those of trained actors. The main character James Furuta (Dann Seki) was marvelous and held my attention the entire time, no small feat.

As a Japanophile who lived many years in Japan, and hopes to return to live there permanently, I loved that the story focused on the interconnectedness of the Japanese-American community, which reminded me of life in Japan. And I loved the usage of old photos of Japanese-Americans appearing intermittently on the screen as the story progressed, representing some of the characters from the murder mystery rooted in past events, but would have preferred them in sharp focus before the film's end to make the characters come to life in the present.

Entertaining and something different than the usual murder mystery fare and all without vulgarity or bloody, violent scenes.

I would never have believed that an old guy on a phone could keep me riveted to the screen for so long. Who needs sets, deep score. or anything. When you have incredible writing and superb acting... I guess that's all you need. Could you please re-make Dial M for Murder now and I guarantee a 10!

I was enthralled by the Tom Hardy movie Locke (2013) and fascinated how they pulled off a whole film with a single actor on screen. When I saw that The Landline Detective had a similar premise, I thought I'd give it a look, and I'm glad I did. There is nothing flashy about the film - no special effects, no big stars. It's a low budget production with all its strength in its idea: an ordinary man stumbles upon something related to the murder of his sister-in-law 30 years ago and, armed only with his landline telephone, sets out to investigate further. There is humour, tension and a plot twist, and yes, it keeps your interest till the end. Sure, you could find faults with the film, but giving it a chance might pay dividends. Just as a huge budget doesn't guarantee a good film, a small budget doesn't preclude it.