Mark Reviews Movies: ON THE LINE (2022)

On the Line, Saban Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 3, 2022

There's a huge problem with On the Line that simply cannot be revealed without giving away writer/director Romuald Boulanger's entire game and point. The plot begins with a fairly clever idea: The family of a late-night radio DJ is threatened by a caller, who insists that the professional talker has to stay on the air or terrible things will happen. The guy is stuck and helpless, essentially, but once the filmmaker realizes he can't keep up this battle of words and wits, the story just becomes a bunch of running into ridiculous complications and twists.

The DJ is Elvis (Mel Gibson), who's apparently a big star—relatively speaking, of course—for his abrasive attitude and his tell-it-like-he-thinks-it-is ways. On this particular night, he bids his wife and young daughter farewell, heads to the radio station, and gets a talking-to from his boss (played by Nadia Farès) about how his behavior is inevitably going to come back to haunt him.

It does, as one caller announces that he is at Elvis' house, has poisoned the family dogs, and has taken the DJ's wife and daughter hostage. The abductor wants Elvis to learn a lesson about how his words and actions have hurt people.

This somewhat works, as a desperate but narcissistic Elvis finds it impossible to even remember the particular abuse that has led to this situation. After all, the number of people he has insulted, harassed, and neglected is simply too large to recall a single instance. In the booth, his producer Mary (Alia Seror-O'Neill) and new intern Dylan (William Moseley) try to help jog his memory and get the police involved, but time is running out for Elvis' loved ones.

Obviously, Boulanger has a point to make about the main character, despite how out-of-date the setting may be and how over-the-top the consequences of his general awfulness are. It seems that way, at least, but once Elvis starts searching the radio station for the source of the call with the new guy, the mechanics of the villain's evil, overly convoluted plan—involving public confessions, plenty of random killings, and lots of things rigged with explosives—take over. The plot basically becomes a scavenger hunt, with Elvis and Dylan going from room to room to discover some new snag, some fake-out, or some revelation that will help make sense of whatever the villain might really be up to with his scheme.

The stakes build and build, until they are nonsensical and absurd. Without saying too much about how On the Line concludes (only for it to conclude yet again with the filmmaker trying and failing to play the same trick twice), those qualities turn out to be, if not the whole point, then at least justified by what's actually happening here. The payoff is also nonsensical and absurd, though, with a heavy dose of pointlessness added to the mix.

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