​​‘The Listener’, a film directed by Steve Buscemi starring Tessa Thompson as ‘Beth’, is about a woman who works a dark life as a helpline volunteer and talks to lonely, depressed, or struggling individuals while dealing with her mental struggles from working the job.

The film takes place completely in Beth’s home as she communicates with her callers and I view it as a great extension to the plot.

If you overlook the poor acting from a good bit of the cast and you ignore the corny dialogue, then the film isn’t bad. Unfortunately, that’s hard to do. 

The film’s plot had lots of potential. In fact, once I learned the plot, I was excited to watch it. However, it wasn’t carried out well.

Why was the acting so underwhelming? Why were the client’s stories so cliché? If we didn’t see any of the clients and only heard their voices, why was it so hard to get better actors? But maybe they just wanted to focus on the effect the job had on Beth. Maybe the other actors didn’t matter, so long as you understood Beth’s experience.

Although I was underwhelmed during the film and in fact got bored pretty soon, I’ll admit the setting and emotion surrounding Beth was very well displayed. The gloomy atmosphere contributed to Beth’s obvious expression of exhaustion and irritation with her job of listening to people state their problems into her ear.

Altogether, I’d give the film a 6 out of 10. I’ll admit some of the actors were better than others but there were far more bad than there should have been. I guess that’s what happens with smaller films. And while you may think it’s too repetitive, it emphasizes the sympathy towards Beth who has to deal with this constantly. We experienced only a bit of what she goes through trying to help clients get on the right path or feel better about themselves.