Call Register

For better picture quality, watch the film here

Call Register is a British short film made in 2004. The film starts at the point where Kevin, played by Martin Freeman, is planning to call a girl- whom he met in a party-for a date. He uses his buddy Julian’s cell to call because Kevin wants to play safe. Julian’s cell recognizes the number as Amanda’s number and Amanda happens to be Julian’s old flame with whom he had broken up and Kevin didn’t know that! From here on starts the plot building, back and forth phone calls among all three characters. The film might seem predictable towards the end, but twist in the tale is not the point here. The film scores primarily on the brilliantly written dialogues and on the wonderful performance of Martin Freeman. Especially towards the end, when Kevin wrongly smells victory, his gloating is extremely funny and real. The film is about how one seemingly trivial decision- in this case deciding to call from a friend’s cell -could seal the fate of one party and rekindle an old relationship of another. Or perhaps this wrong call was just an excuse, and sooner or later things would have gone that way in any case. Perhaps the wrong call was a blessing in disguise for Kevin, even though he doesn’t realize it now.

The short also proves once again that if the story, the acting and the dialogues are really good, the whole film could be shot in one room with great results!!