Listen Carefully takes one of the most frightening things that can happen in real life and adds another layer of tension. Andy McNeary (Ryan Barton-Grimley, who is also the writer and director) is an assistant bank manager home alone watching his infant daughter while his wife is having a night out with her friends. When he goes to check on his daughter’s cries, Andy finds an empty crib and a baby monitor. The voice at the other end says baby Abby will be fine as long as they receive a payment of a quarter of a million dollars.
As serious as the situation is, Barton-Grimley goes in some interesting directions tonally. It would be a stretch to call Listen Carefully a comedy, but there are moments of dark humor. However, these jokes never add levity; instead, they make it feel like the subject matter is not being taken seriously.
It sounds like a bad thing – and it is one of the film’s biggest flaws – but it also may be intentional. The movie is about love and the lengths people will go, but it is also a character study. The story is about Andy’s growth as he deals with the trauma. These are actually the best moments.
Any good Listen Carefully builds is undone by a third act filled with repetitive and poorly done twists. Again, this may be done on purpose to show how Andy has changed, but for audiences it makes for a very difficult watch. There are some good ideas at play here; the film just deicides to overdo the worst ones.
Listen Carefully is available digitally.
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