‘Listen’ Takes a Dark Look at Women in Harm’s Way

“Listen” is a trite erotic thriller that hauls out the lethal lesbian stereotype who is determined to secure the woman she loves.

The sultry Krista Barron (Sarah G. Buxton) suffered a nervous breakdown a year earlier when Brooke Langton’s Sarah Ross found herself no longer comfortable in their relationship. Krista fled San Francisco to Vermont to pull herself together, but now she’s back, more determined to possess Sarah than ever.

Meanwhile, both Sarah and her lover Jake (Gordon Currie) are hung up on phone sex--neither knows the other is--while Jake also enjoys films depicting extreme violence against women. (This sequence and a couple of others have since been trimmed by 45 seconds to secure an R rating.) As if all this weren’t enough, Sarah has reason to believe that her neighbor (Joel Wyner), who’s constantly sexually harassing her, may be a serial killer. But then the manager (Jeff Burnett) at her apartment house seems a real weirdo.

Buxton and Langton are poised and Gavin Wilding’s direction is earnest, but Jonas Quastel and Michael Bafaro’s screenplay is ludicrous and exploitative of violence against women. Not helping matters is the flood of inserted San Francisco panoramas that simply underline the fact that “Listen” was shot in Vancouver.

* MPAA rating: R, for strong scenes of violence and eroticism, and for language. Times guidelines: The film on the whole exploits violence against women.

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‘Listen’

Brooke Langton: Sarah Ross

Sarah G. Buxton: Krista Barron

Gordon Currie: Jake Taft

Joel Wyner Randy Wilkes

A Devin Entertainment presentation. Director Gavin Wilding. Producer Diane Patrick-O’Connor. Executive producers Greg H. Sims, Wilding. Screenplay by Jonas Quastel & Michael Bafaro. Cinematographer Brian Pearson. Editor Melinda Seabrook. Costumes Pearl Bellesen. Production designer Cathy Robertson. Art director Jason Scott-Sutherland. Set decorator Kate Marshall. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

* At the Avco Cinema, 10840 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood, (310) 475-0711, and the Galaxy, Hollywood Boulevard and Sycamore, Hollywood, (213) 957-0711.