Young man living on the East coast with his widower dad becomes a mentor to retired businessman who enjoys having the lad read to him three times a week. After introducing the initially-reluctant codger to the iPhone, the kid discovers the older man dead---but his texts (ostensibly made from the phone buried with him) keep coming after the funeral. John Lee Hancock directed this not-unusual-enough drama for Netflix, an adaptation of Stephen King's short story from his 2020 collection "If It Bleeds" (King himself was one of the film's producers). There are the usual scenes of High School Hell--and a drug-dealing bully who keeps popping up like a bad penny--that will only seem fresh to newcomers. The rapport between the teenage Craig (Jaeden Martell) and the old man (Donald Sutherland) might've proved wonderful, but these moments are ultimately underwritten (the books they share are returned to the shelf after only two sentences are read aloud). In the lead, quaveringly sensitive Martell is from the Tobey Maguire School: wet, hurt eyes on an angel's face and a tender voice. Martell isn't directed well by Hancock, who wants the kid to wring our guts out with emotion, yet his big scenes (such as crying at the tombstone of his mother) are wringers. The relationship between Craig and his father is also phony, while the students we're introduced to at Craig's school are unceremoniously dropped once the writer has no further use for them. But what of that mysterious phone with the texts from beyond the grave? It's a plot function. It teaches our hero that being wed to our toys isn't necessarily a good marriage. Thank God this kid wasn't addicted to video games. *1/2 from ****
Review of Mr. Harrigan's Phone
