MR. HARRIGAN'S PHONE

Based upon a short story by Stephen King, the setting takes place in Harlow, Maine and follows young Craig (Colin O'Brien) and his father (Joe Tippett). Craig having recently lost his mother and his father having lost his wife, their home feels isolated even with the two residing in it. Local billionaire Mr. Harrigan (Donald Sutherland) begins to lose his vision and requests for young Craig to read to him 3 times per week from his personal library at a rate of $5-per-hour. Fast forward 5 yeas later Craig (Jaeden Martell) is now in high school when the first iPhone is released. His father purchases him one for Christmas and after winning $3,000 via a scratch off ticket, which Mr. Harrigan gives to his 4 times a year, he decides to gift Mr. Harrigan with his own iPhone. However, one day Craig arrives as usual to read to Mr. Harrigan, only to find him dead. Lonely and just having lost one of his longest and closest friends, Craig reaches out to the recently deceased Mr. Harrigan via his iPhone. Upon his arrival in high school, Craig is soon bullied and after taking one too many attacks, leaves a voicemail on Mr. Harrigan's phone asking for the bully to get his. The eerie part is the bully soon does wind up meeting his own demise and Craig begins to question if Mr. Harrigan is really dead or alive. The premise of the story is interesting enough, taking quite a bit of the runtime to establish the relationship between Craig and Mr. Harrigan and doesn't begin to pick up until around halfway through. Even when it does, and Crag's bully shows up dead, the momentum from this sequence is soon lost before briefly picking up again towards the end and then ends on a limp note. Average at best and Sutherland's and Martell's performances are satisfactory and work well together onscreen, but nothing to wow the audience. Might be worth your time if you're really interested in the subject matter; otherwise, you're not missing much if you skip it. 5.5/10