"The Slender Thread" is a spectacular thrilling drama that never loses momentum, thrills through it all thanks to the brilliant performances of Anne Bancroft
and Sidney Poitier and the precise direction by Sydney Pollack making his feature film debut after many years of working for television. Pollack would later
direct many classics such as "Jeremiah Johnson", "Tootsie", "Out of Africa" and "The Firm" creating a solid reputation both as technical director and an actors
director. This film is a definitive proof he can balance in both positions, as evidenced through the nice editing and Quincy Jones classic and jazzy music scores.
Poitier stars as Alan, a college student volunteering at a crisis center who receives a dramatic call from Miss Inga (Bancroft), a lonely and depressed woman who wants to take her own life. From then on, it's up to Alan's mission to find the woman and save her before the tragedy takes place. In between their conversation always extended by the man she tells her routine previous to the call where she reveals having trouble at home with her spouse, a fisherman (Steven Hill) who discovered a hidden family secret revolving their son. Meanwhile, while Alan tries to calm the woman he's all exhausted and tense trying to trace her whereabouts with the help of his chief doctor (Telly Savalas, charming good) and the police force. Man, it was really long the process of tracing a call - the element builds plenty of suspense in the story.
Theatre oriented movies tend to be a hardship to many audiences and a certain quiet pace. The story here has many theatre elements, it could be turned into a play with just the two of the actors together. Though based on a news article, the film has this theatre setting located at the crisis center and sometimes moving on to police departments, or Inga's room, and her day described through flashbacks. Poitier is a born star, impecable here as the confident but nervous helpful man, though viewers musn't think Alan's response to Inga as a real depiction of how people should react on a crisis/suicide situation. He goes off the book sometimes but it's quite understandable due to his nervousness and lack of empathy at times. He could really jeopardize everything there. Mrs. Bancroft is a stellar presence of magic and sad beauty with a tormented character who keeps us intrigued through her journey and long talks with Alan, we keep wanting to know why she wants to commit suicide and she keeps holding back the information from Alan and us in the audience. If the flashbacks serve a point to give reasoning for her current state (and to ease the audience from all the tension), the sequences during the call are all thrilling, changing the mood drastically with Alan's race against the clock in order to locate her and save her.
For a film debut Mr. Pollack showed his talents by not making a simple plot become simplistic. Stirling Silliphant's script is controlled and clear to the point, and it makes viewers to think about the issues presented and the 'what we would do if we were in Alan's shoes' or also the possibilities of some of us being in the same position as Inga.
It dares to make us question about those things, our reaction to such events and our sense of empathy for such characters. We're definitely on the scene with Poitier character all the way without losing the connection. We feel his anguish and pain just as much as we want to help Inga the fast as we can while we're waiting for the worst to happen.
I was moved all the way with the twists and turns from the story, which today might sound repetitive, cliched and seen before. However, with the great acting from the cast and the outstanding direction by Pollack the movie is a hit and never disappoints. It's THAT good. 10/10.
Poitier stars as Alan, a college student volunteering at a crisis center who receives a dramatic call from Miss Inga (Bancroft), a lonely and depressed woman who wants to take her own life. From then on, it's up to Alan's mission to find the woman and save her before the tragedy takes place. In between their conversation always extended by the man she tells her routine previous to the call where she reveals having trouble at home with her spouse, a fisherman (Steven Hill) who discovered a hidden family secret revolving their son. Meanwhile, while Alan tries to calm the woman he's all exhausted and tense trying to trace her whereabouts with the help of his chief doctor (Telly Savalas, charming good) and the police force. Man, it was really long the process of tracing a call - the element builds plenty of suspense in the story.
Theatre oriented movies tend to be a hardship to many audiences and a certain quiet pace. The story here has many theatre elements, it could be turned into a play with just the two of the actors together. Though based on a news article, the film has this theatre setting located at the crisis center and sometimes moving on to police departments, or Inga's room, and her day described through flashbacks. Poitier is a born star, impecable here as the confident but nervous helpful man, though viewers musn't think Alan's response to Inga as a real depiction of how people should react on a crisis/suicide situation. He goes off the book sometimes but it's quite understandable due to his nervousness and lack of empathy at times. He could really jeopardize everything there. Mrs. Bancroft is a stellar presence of magic and sad beauty with a tormented character who keeps us intrigued through her journey and long talks with Alan, we keep wanting to know why she wants to commit suicide and she keeps holding back the information from Alan and us in the audience. If the flashbacks serve a point to give reasoning for her current state (and to ease the audience from all the tension), the sequences during the call are all thrilling, changing the mood drastically with Alan's race against the clock in order to locate her and save her.
For a film debut Mr. Pollack showed his talents by not making a simple plot become simplistic. Stirling Silliphant's script is controlled and clear to the point, and it makes viewers to think about the issues presented and the 'what we would do if we were in Alan's shoes' or also the possibilities of some of us being in the same position as Inga.
It dares to make us question about those things, our reaction to such events and our sense of empathy for such characters. We're definitely on the scene with Poitier character all the way without losing the connection. We feel his anguish and pain just as much as we want to help Inga the fast as we can while we're waiting for the worst to happen.
I was moved all the way with the twists and turns from the story, which today might sound repetitive, cliched and seen before. However, with the great acting from the cast and the outstanding direction by Pollack the movie is a hit and never disappoints. It's THAT good. 10/10.