Mr. Harrigan’s Phone

Perhaps it’s fitting that as a story about literary appreciation, Mr. Harrigan’s Phone stumbles in the translation from page to screen.

Despite some evocative atmospheric flourishes, this adaptation of a Stephen King novella expands upon a thin yet intriguing premise — somewhere between an old-man rant about technological overreach and a cautionary tale about online privacy — without yielding much consistent suspense or compelling mystery.

The film immerses us in a familiar setting for King devotees — a wintry New England small town circa 2003, shrouded in despair and dark secrets.

That’s where teenager Craig (Jaeden Martell) is approached by reclusive billionaire John Harrigan (Donald Sutherland) with an unusual job offer, to read novels aloud to him three afternoons per week. The salary is meager, yet as Craig plows through D.H. Lawrence and Upton Sinclair, the uneasy dynamic results in an unlikely rapport between outsiders two generations apart.

The notoriously misanthropic Harrigan shares his philosophy on dealing harshly with bullies and warns of a mysterious closet that’s off limits. Craig gets the elderly Harrigan hooked on a shiny new iPhone. Their arrangement endures for a few years, until Craig shows up one day to find his employer dead.

Craig sneaks Harrigan’s phone into his coffin, and it isn’t long before Craig starts receiving cryptic text messages from Harrigan’s old number just he happens to need a catalyst for revenge against those who’ve harmed him.

From there, the story boils down to a rather generic coming-of-age tale about a socially awkward kid burdened by self-esteem issues, adolescent angst, and unprocessed grief from his mother’s recent death.

Amid the bits of nostalgic appeal, it’s a misfire for director John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side), whose low-key screenplay bogs down in expository narration as a crutch to develop characters while stalling the narrative momentum.

The periphery characters lack depth, such as Craig’s single father (Joe Tippett) or his revered science teacher (Kirby Howell-Baptiste). The twists become progressively gimmickier and more preposterous, caught between a muddled revenge saga and a tame supernatural thriller.

A committed performance by Martell (Knives Out) provides an emotional anchor, but considering its climate, Mr. Harrigan’s Phone doesn’t dial up many chills.

Rated PG-13, 106 minutes.