Babycall

Young mother Anna (Noomi Rapace) lives in fear. Although she has managed to flee with her eight-year-old son Anders (Vetle Q. Werring) from his supposedly violent father to an anonymous housing estate, she lives in constant fear that Anders will be taken away from her or that her ex will find her in hiding. Her fear even goes so far as to share a room with the boy at night so she can protect him even while he sleeps. When she receives a condition from Child Protective Services that Anders get his own room no matter what, she decides to buy a baby monitor so she can at least hear if her son is okay. But with the device she not only hears Anders. Voices and noises from neighboring apartments also seem to be caught on this frequency. When Anna hears screams coming from the baby monitor, she is convinced she has just witnessed an act of violence. And somehow the strange boy Anders has befriended in the house seems to play a part in it. Soon Anna is certain: she and her son are in danger again, too - and she will do anything to protect Anders...

Babycall is a mix of drama and psychological thriller, with director Pål Sletaune playing quite expertly with the blurring of the line between imagination and reality. More than once the viewer wonders if what is happening is real, or if it is just happening in Anna's imagination. At the same time, a scenario is built up in which it is made quite comprehensible why the desperate mother is so close to the border of insanity, why she must be so afraid for her son that in some moments she just can't think straight anymore. However, the fact that the audience eventually questions even these circumstances adds spice to the cleverly constructed story.

Noomi Rapace delivers another convincing performance here. To be sure, this role is a far cry from the intensity she revealed in the Millennium trilogy. Still, her portrait of a mother who would go to extremes to protect her son also leaves a very strong impression. Kristoffer Joner, who was last seen in the drama King of Devil`s Island, as the lovable salesman Helge, forms a calm counterpoint to the at times arguably hysterical Anna, but this also intensifies her fear and her supposed delusions even more.

Slowly and at times perhaps a little too leisurely, Pål Sletaune tightens the tension screw to then let Babycall culminate in an extremely consistent finale. After a certain moment this is rather predictable, especially since it's hinted at in the very first scene. But Sletaune succeeds very well in giving the last scene an enormous intensity, which quickly makes some of the dramaturgical hangs forgotten. Because the ending is so strong and, although it comes as only a limited surprise, shocking, it also leaves the greatest impression on the viewer, who should then only be slightly bothered by the previous lengths.

Babycall has some clear weaknesses, but on balance is still a good psychological thriller that knows how to entertain very well thanks to very good actors and its always threatening and gloomy staging. If you appreciate dramatic thriller fare from the north, you'll be very well served by this psycho-drama. Worth seeing

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp