AllMovie

Vacillating between the suspense of a thriller and the absurdity of a farce, this uneven story about a demonized telephone company intent on controlling everyone's lives ends up in cinematic limbo -- neither farce nor thriller. When Mavis (Julie Walters) leaves her gay husband to go live in an apartment with her daughter, she receives a call from him saying he is about to come over for a visit. Nothing happens. Then the telephone does other strange things, and as she sets out to discover why, the people she meets are as odd as her phone. She comes across a dwarf with a giant libido and an expert in conspiracy theories who holds his own views (not created jointly with others). The woman would have been better off getting an answering machine, much needed to resolve the plot holes in this story.