Mr. Harrigan's Phone

Mr. Harrigan's Phone

Craig, a young boy living in a small town befriends an older, reclusive billionaire, Mr. Harrigan. The two form a bond over books and an iPhone, but when the man passes away the boy discovers that not everything dead is gone.

  • Released: 2022-10-05
  • Runtime: 105 minutes
  • Genre: Drama, Horror, Thrillers
  • Stars: Donald Sutherland, Jaeden Martell, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Cyrus Arnold, Thomas Francis Murphy, Joe Tippett, Caitlin Shorey, Iván Amaro Bullón, Conor William Wright, Alexa Shae Niziak, Bennett Saltzman, Joseph Paul Kennedy, Thalia Torio, Colin O'Brien, Leo Kennedy, Peggy J. Scott, Daniel Reece, Frank Ridley, Wayne Pyle
  • Director: John Lee Hancock
 Comments
  • erlosupe - 4 January 2024
    Amazing
    This movie is a faithful adaptation of the short story Mr. Harrigan´s Phone by Stephen King. I read the book If It Bleeds and I love it. The story is wonderful and amazing. Craig is the best character of the world. I like both Craig and Mr. Harrigan. This story is about friendship, loyalty and death. I think that it is not a horror movie, in fact although it has dark overtones, it is actually a tender story. The paranormal elements didn't scare me, it was a pretty light movie. The end was very nice and I think it was the perfect closure for this plot, I really liked the decision that Craig made and what he chose to do with his life.
  • sagittaur79 - 25 July 2023
    Poor movie adaptation
    Right from the start your realise this is a novel poorly adapted for the screen. Imagery that works through writing is painfully drawn out on the screen, drawing out for too long, just sort of dawdling in pointless metaphoric exercise.

    This movie sets up a premise and then doesn't take it anywhere. The protagonist is fleshed out fully, and boy does that take the whole movie! And there's some banal moralising about mobile phones and technology, without really getting to the crux of the narrative. Just really poor storytelling.

    I give it three stars: one for having been made, two for some lovely scenography, and three for having cast Donald Sutherland.
  • dreapopa - 6 April 2023
    So much potential
    Here without reading the book sadly, ashamed because who knows, maybe I'm wrong in what I'm about to say.

    So as an avid IMDb user I add the movie to my watchlist to rate it only after I watch it, I make sure it's added before pressing play and couldn't notice the "low" rating. In the middle of the movie I don't understand this rating, I was positive I was going to give it a ten. Maybe it's deeper than just a "ghost" story and I missed the meaning but then why only 6.1?

    This story had so much more potential, like Craig actually going into the film industry and him using Mr. Harrington to "defeat" his enemies, so we could see him succeed. Or him using it for different reasons, but no. Maybe this is also due to it only being a short story, but then again, maybe even that short story had more potential.

    Overall, I enjoyed it but I was just hoping for more. I didn't want it to end just yet.
  • dayana421 - 30 December 2022
    A beautiful movie, negative reviews written by people who wanted to be scared rather then think
    A beautiful movie, negative reviews written by people who wanted to be scared rather then feel and think. Beautifully written directed and well acted. If you are looking for a cheap thrill to get "scared" like people that wrote negative reviews you will be disappointed. But if you want a gentle beautiful movie that touches feelings, thoughts and wishes in you this is it. This movie is not a "horror'' in a classic sense, but what a movie it is, definitely worth watching for those that are not looking for cheap thrills and for monsters that appear when least expected to scare you, but looking for a movie that touches our inner feelings.
  • A_Different_Drummer - 13 December 2022
    a matter of some considerable irony..
    There is an inside joke in Hollywood that no one has ever successfully translated a King novel to the big screen, not even King himself. Like most inside jokes, to get it, you first have to revisit all the many attempts over the years to give life to his prose, and see where most if not all failed. So it is a matter of some irony, at least for this reviewer, that, at this late date, creator John Lee Hancock (who both wrote the screenplay for, and directed this one) should succeed where others have failed. There is a purity, a simplicity and a singleness of purpose to this adaptation that all the others lacked. And that is the key to why this works. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))
  • henry8-3 - 15 November 2022
    Mr Harrigan's Phone
    Young boy Craig is employed by mega rich and ruthless businessman, Harriman (Donald Sutherland) to read to him. Over the years they develop a friendship of sorts and when Craig wins $3,000 he buys Harriman a mobile phone which he immediately takes great interest in. When Harriman dies, Craig places the phone in his coffin and later regrets it when he receives mysterious text from the phone.

    Based on a Stephen King short story this an interesting and somewhat spooky, but not really scary tale, which perhaps it should have been. The two leads Jaeden Martell and Donald Sutherland are compelling and indeed their scenes together are the best thing here. After Sutherland's demise, the story still keeps you interested as the ghoulish element takes over, it ultimately just isn't quite ghoulish enough and Sutherland's presence is missed.
  • jsantos-misc - 5 November 2022
    Boring
    It was boring. I fast forwarded thru parts and still got the point of the movie. Nothing interesting happened. I only feel bad because I've seen Donald Sutherland in many of his movies over his decades of a career and this was just boring. Any old person could have played his part and it would have been the same movie. That's not Sutherland's fault, there was just not much to work with. I feel like most of the movie was just padding, but then again, Stephen King books have a lot of padding that are also boring, and this movie was based on a short story that tried to stretch out into a full movie.