A 911 dispatcher has to outwit a madman in The Call, a serviceable little thriller about a kidnapped girl and a race against time.

Halle Berry anchors the movie as Jordan Turner, a call centre employee who works the emergency phones and does her best to keep a cool head on the job. The movie opens with an adolescent girl calling 911 in terror as her house is broken into; Berry takes that call and makes an error that contributes to a tragedy.

The experience leaves her completely unnerved.

Six months go by. Jordan no longer handles 911 calls. She now instructs others in handling emergency phone calls, and that's how she happens to be on the front lines when another adolescent girl dials 911 in hysterics. We've already seen this girl (Abigail Breslin) get grabbed and chloroformed and stuffed into the trunk of a car, and now our 911 dispatcher must find a way to get the police to her, pronto.