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Denise Calls Up (1995)

A review by Damian Cannon.
Copyright © Movie Reviews UK 1997
Aiming its satire squarely at the "too busy for life" urban professional, Denise Calls Up manages to stretch its single idea a long way. The basic set-up is this - there's a certain section of New York City society that makes workaholics look like they're slacking. Surgically attached to their telephones and high-spec portable computers, these deadline-deluged individuals can never make enough time to actually meet any of their so-called friends. Instead, they converse through fax and phone. Thus, while Denise Calls Up never centres on any single person, Denise (Alanna Ubach) is perhaps the most central figure - all because she provides the most human moment in the entire movie.

Denise, a robust and confident young woman, has had herself fertilised with an anonymous sperm bank donation. This neatly avoids all of the usual relationship headaches, although Denise can't quite stop herself calling the biological father to thank him (she obtains his number via an inside contact). Martin Wiener (Dan Gunther), tapping furiously on his keyboard, is surprised (to say the least) by this unexpected revelation. The strange thing is that after he's recovered from the initial shock he's actually quite keen on the idea of being a dad. Not knowing Denise sure isn't going to stop him picking names! An old friend, Jerry (Liev Schreiber), is full of congratulations even though he only rang to talk through some fairly heavy problems of his own.

The complicated situation in question is that Jerry has another friend, Frank Oliver (Tim Daly), who's ex-girlfriend Gale (Dana Wheeler Nicholson) is trying to set Jerry up with a friend of hers, Barbara (Caroleen Feeney). Despite the fact that Jerry and Gale have never been in the same room together, she still seems to believe that they'd make an exquisite couple. Unfortunately their last opportunity to meet, at a party hosted by Linda (Aida Turturro), was a shambles as no one turned up. The same old feeble excuses were dusted off but the reality is that none of the guests wanted the uncertainty of real people. After all, chatting by phone is so much easier. With such a background it appears unlikely that Barbara and Jerry will ever cross paths, although the odds are somewhat greater for Denise and Martin.

The premise that certain people are just too busy to make social contact, instead living vicariously through technology, is a great start (particularly in relation to "Internet geeks"). The assorted almost-friends populating Denise Calls Up don't smell the roses because they probably haven't seen a rose in years - life in all its majesty is passing them by. The simple comment by Gale that she last had sex the previous July (with a repairman) and feels fulfilled by this. All of these small points illustrate how vacuous their existences are. However, for such satire to work the humour needs something to contrast with, an essential alternative.

Denise almost fills this role but even she is married to her cell-phone. The result is that Denise Calls Up pops out of the blocks well but fails to follow through, dawdling along with repeats of the same scenes for the rest of the film. Perhaps the one-liners change but that's not enough. The wafer-thin plot isn't enough to support a feature film, although characters with charisma might have made the journey more bearable. Regrettably empathy is in short supply, although you might find yourself laughing a few times.

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