The Headhunter's Sister

A Phoenix pick

Are all telecommunications a form of phone sex? That's one of the suggestions made by Scott Saunders's jolting, genial, awkwardly titled The Headhunter's Sister. The headhunter is Ray (Bob McGrath), a scrawny fortysomething whose idea of fashion is changing his T-shirt every week or so but who is an ace at placing high-priced lawyers in big firms for exorbitant fees. He's a master at phone seduction, as is his wife, Teresa (Isabel Robayo), a Colombian immigrant who may or may not have married Ray for a green card and who works as a Spanish-language phone sex operator.

As adept as these two are in "communicating" with their clients, they can't talk much with each other, since neither knows the other's language. So they get along fine until Ray's sister Linda (Elizabeth Schofield) shows up, seeking a break from her deteriorating marriage. She disapproves of Ray's fly-by-night, multicultural world in the steamy Lower East Side, but she's also drawn in, with bad consequences for both. Given John Cassavetes-like in-your-face camerawork and precise, impassioned performances, Saunders creates a layered and piquant world and genuine characters; he demonstrates that the most basic form of communication is a crossed connection. Screens at the Copley Place Friday the 12th at 7:50 and 9:50 p.m. and Saturday the 13th at noon and 2 and 4 p.m.

-- Peter Keough

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