Murder mysteries hinging on the last moment to reveal the identity of a murderer can either engage the viewer so much that they get fully immersed in the narrative, anticipating the killer, or make the plot so convoluted that they lose the viewer’s interest. The new film Pocket Dial Murder falls somewhere around the middle. It captures attention in some patches, enticing the viewer into the story, but loses its grip with its contrived ending.
Pocket Dial Murder revolves around the lives of a couple, Stacey and Jeff, that get disrupted after Stacey receives a call from Jeff and hears a murder committed on the other end. Jeff claims to be innocent, as he had lost his phone earlier, implying that whoever has the phone is the murderer. An investigation begins, and Stacey begins to doubt Jeff, sensing her life is in danger.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens In ‘Pocket Dial Murder’?
Stacey, a real estate agent, receives a call from her husband, Jeff, and picks it up, naturally assuming it’s her husband on the other end of the line. Well, it wasn’t. Stacey hears the voice of a woman. This mystery figure, who the woman was talking to, did not realize he had just pocket-dialed Stacey’s number from Jeff’s mobile. Stacey herself gets terrified when she hears a gunshot and fears the woman is dead. She dials 911, the police arrive at Stacey’s residence, and Detective Munger waits for her husband to return home.
Jeff arrives, not knowing what horrible events have transpired. Detective Munger notes the details and calls Jeff for questioning. He is their prime suspect, but Stacey knows deep down that, although Jeff is not the most saintly guy, there is no way he could have killed somebody. Jeff does not plead guilty to the events and sticks to the story of having lost his mobile before the murder was committed. He has no alibi for it, however, and after the body is discovered, Stacey, too, begins to doubt him. It was later revealed to us that the deceased woman was Juliette Lane. Detective Munger is successful in tracing the pocket dial to Juliette’s house, only to find her shot dead. But will Munger be able to find her killer?
Why Does Stacey Begin To Doubt Jeff?
On the call, before Juliette was shot by the murderer, she could be heard saying that she would tell his wife about her affair with the mystery killer, and right after she said her intentions out loud in a hysterical tone, the killer pulled the trigger, killing Juliette. This implied that the killer didn’t want Juliette to break the news of his affair to his wife. In the past, Stacey’s marriage with Jeff had gone through a rough patch because Jeff had cheated on her. The matter was mutually resolved, and Stacey had forgiven Jeff, but with this murder, some past traumas had resurfaced. She didn’t exactly suspect Jeff, but she couldn’t entirely bring herself to believe his story of losing his cellphone very conveniently just hours before the murder.
Stacey’s sister Joelle, her husband Alek, and Alek’s nephew Sean cared for Stacey’s well-being after the traumatic event, but Stacey’s mother was hell-bent on rubbing Jeff’s infidelity in her face, telling her that even her father had cheated and men who cheat once are liable to become serial cheaters. Stacey doesn’t want to believe that Jeff could murder someone just because the woman was trying to blackmail him. She had forgiven him before, and there was enough love between Stacey and Jeff that he could come to her in case someone was blackmailing him. But what if Jeff felt ashamed of breaking Stacey’s trust a second time and didn’t want her to know the sordid details of his infidelity again, which is why he murdered Juliette? The suspicion and doubt are cemented further when it is revealed that Juliette was, in fact, Jeff’s client, and there were rumors of them getting close in the office.
Stacey confronts Jeff as to why he kept it a secret that Juliette was his client. Jeff, in his defense, says that the police already suspected him, and he didn’t want these facts to make Stacey doubt him, but this is exactly what happened. He does deny having an affair with Juliette, but his concealment further increases Stacey’s suspicion, and she begins to fear for her own life.
Why Did She Ask Jeff To Leave Her House?
Stacey was being followed by a woman named Meredith, who wanted to tell her something regarding Julitte’s murder. She claimed to be her friend and wanted to talk to Stacey. On the day of her meeting with Meredith, Jeff tells Stacey that he is going to blow off some steam with Mike, his lawyer. Stacey reaches Meredith’s home to find someone running away from the place. She opens the door and finds Meredith lying on the floor, gasping for air. She had been strangled and didn’t survive the assault.
Stacey returns traumatized, and she finds Jeff in the house. Stacey suspected him already and given that he had seen Meredith’s address on Stacey’s cellphone, he could have been the one who killed her. She had called Mike, with whom he was supposed to have been hanging out, and he proceeded to tell her that Jeff never showed up. All these facts combined make Stacey fearful of Jeff. Later, Jeff’s fate seems sealed after a gun and his “lost” mobile phone are discovered in his own room by Stacey’s sister Joelle. Stacey calls Detective Munger, and she proceeds to check the gun against the bullet that killed Juliette. Before Jeff gets arrested, Stacey asks him to leave the house. Her trust in Jeff had been shattered, but a little detail makes her doubt her convictions.
Why Does Stacey Start Believing Jeff Again?
Jeff was certain that somebody was framing him for the murder, but he had no idea who. Nobody seemed to believe him, and the facts were completely against him. The gun matched the bullet, and the lost phone had suddenly appeared in his closet. Stacey was distraught thinking he had committed the murders, but when Mike called her for the bail hearing, she found a little detail that made her doubt whether Jeff could have committed the murders.
Mike shows her the photograph of a glove that was found near Juliette’s corpse which had gunpowder residue on it, implying that it belonged to the killer. Stacey immediately points out to Mike that Jeff couldn’t have worn those gloves as he is terribly allergic to the polyester which the glove was made of. He would have had rashes all over his hands for a week if he had worn that glove, but he didn’t. Mike grows confident that he could call Jeff’s dermatologist as an expert witness to reveal that fact to the jury. Stacey now began to look for other suspects who were trying to frame poor Jeff.
Who Killed Juliette? Why Did Sean Help Alek?
For a moment, Stacey thought that Jeff’s senior, Ellen, was the one framing Jeff, thinking she had killed Juliette over her blackmail. Ellen had given Juliette some hush money after she made an error that destroyed Juliette’s company. Juliette had started to blackmail Ellen for more money in exchange for her silence. But Ellen had not killed Juliette. Similarly, Alek’s nephew Sean, who was seen snooping around Alek’s office, had also not killed her, for he had no motive.
Pocket Dial Murder‘s ending revealed that the killer was Alek, who had killed Juliette because she had started to blackmail him about their affair. The cheater was never Stacey’s husband Jeff but Joelle’s husband Alek. Juliette was referring to Joelle on the pocket-dial when threatening Alek that she would tell “her” about the affair. What happened was that Alek had accidentally taken Jeff’s phone with him on the night of the murder and pocket-dialed Stacey. He asked Sean, his nephew, to plant the gun and the mobile in Jeff’s room. Sean didn’t suspect then that Alek was effectively pinning the murder on Jeff. The fact that Alek had helped Sean earlier in a drunk driving case meant that Sean couldn’t refuse when he was asked for this favor.
Sean had started to resent Alek once the investigations started because he knew he had done something horrible by helping his uncle. He had helped in sending innocent Jeff to jail. To alleviate his guilt, he hacked into Alek’s account and saw the emails that would be used as proof that Alek had an affair with Juliette. Alek could have just confessed to the murder, but the factor of him getting demoted and Jeff’s position being up for grabs after he got jailed made him greedy. The police arrive and although Alek sobs profusely for betraying Joelle’s trust, he knows he did horrible deeds for which he will now have to pay.
