At its core, Louisa Connolly-Burnham’s The Call Centre is a film that goes out of its way to be provocative. And it acknowledges that. This film follows Paige, an introverted young woman (also played by Connolly-Burnham), as she spends her day job in a dull life insurance call centre. Before things begin to take an unexpected turn that changes her sense of self-actualisation. Notably ironic that an environment purposefully made to look lifeless houses people selling life coverage; a nice touch.
This film is at its best when it is able to subvert our own expectations of workplace harassment and seduction traps. And whilst it still deals with it, its challenge to that is something that intentionally takes you by left field. Then, just when you think it’s slipping back into the obvious, it begins to pull the rug again.
It starts with Paige being the one ignored and looked down upon by her colleagues. Before she gets a call from a man trying to buy life insurance. Who instead begins to harass her in an inappropriate seduction attempt. During these moments, Connolly-Burnham utilises audio to heighten this film’s intimacy. As its loud work environment is juxtaposed with small breathing noises and extreme close-ups on mouths.
I don’t want to fully spoil the sexual twists that this film takes, but Paige decides to pursue her inappropriate caller when things quickly go south. This film’s weight is held up by the fact that you think it’s going to play it straight forward, as many others dealing with this subject would, but it’s always able to have the last laugh. Whether that is dealing with the misogynistic everyday spaces of a house, or, more in question, the most basic-looking workplace imaginable.
It is entirely confident in the solid transgressions that it ends up dealing with. Capable of turning a timid nature into one of assurance that seeks to enact revenge at every turn, never really second-guessing its decisions.
Overall, The Call Centre functions as both a typical and atypical dive into sexual harassment, that is pushed even further by the strength of its female perspective. Unafraid to speak on taboo subjects that many seem unable to communicate on. And even when they are, many in its area end up in the same lane of unoriginality, ineffectively regurgitating the same commentary over and over again. But this tries its hardest to defy that.
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