You see, when the old man kicks the bucket, Craig puts his new phone in the casket with him, and, well, things start to happen. Harrigan’s Phone” works better as a conversation starter about justice and power than anything literal. As Harrigan goes on about how these devices will be used for fake news and misinformation (he’s “frightened by this gizmo”), the film devolves into a heavy-handed cautionary tale with blunt messaging that the source material didn’t need. It’s not long before Harrigan himself is hooked on his phone, allowing Hancock and Sutherland a truly eye-rolling speech about the danger of giving up reality for the life of a smartphone. Harrigan refuses, until the kid points out how much the business savvy Harrigan can stay on top of the market and breaking financial news. When Craig gets $3,000 from his scratch-off gift, he decides to take some of that money to introduce the old man to the iWorld. He gives Craig confidence, and Craig gives him some late-in-life comfort.Īnd Mr. He encourages Craig to be ruthless and decisive, whether it’s in standing up to a high school bully or approaching a girl he likes. Harrigan, who clearly has stepped on a few people on his climb up the corporate ladder. It’s a formative friendship for Craig and a lovely final chapter for Mr. He comes to life not just when Craig reads material like Heart of Darkness but when they discuss the themes after.

He’s a deeply analog man who doesn’t own a TV or even a radio, even if he likes listening to his “Country Western” tunes in the car sometimes. Harrigan (Sutherland) hires a young man named Craig (Martell) to read to him because the old man’s eyes are going in his later years. Harrigan’s Phone” from completely going dead, but you’re going to want to send this one to voicemail.

An early engaging performance from the great Donald Sutherland and a consistently grounded one from Jaeden Martell keep “Mr. Hancock’s adaptation, which he also wrote, takes forever to get going, and then seems almost afraid of its own dark themes of vengeance when it finally gets to them. Harrigan’s Phone” needed a viciousness that Hancock eschews in favor of blunt commentary about dependence on technology that sounds about as in touch as that old relative of yours who will lecture you about why he’s never going to get a smartphone.

Harrigan’s Phone,” which is now a Netflix original horror film from John Lee Hancock, the director of “The Rookie” and 'The Blind Side.' He brings the earnestness of those films to King’s ghost story and proves to be the wrong filmmaker for this project. I’ve long been a fan of Stephen King’s novellas, and some of them have been turned into great films in the past, including “Stand by Me,” “ The Shawshank Redemption,” and “ The Mist.” The master of horror’s 2020 collection If It Bleeds opened with a wonderful little ghost story called “Mr.

Stephen king cellphone