As a self-proclaimed and publicly acknowledged funny man, Robin Williams has been idling into the realm of dramatic, serious films. A few of his romps -- "Good Will Hunting," "Insomnia" and "One Hour Photo" for example -- paid off, others not so much. "The Night Listener" plays to his serious acting ability and works amazingly well.

Storyteller and radio host Gabriel Noone (Williams) captivates listeners during his show "Noone at Night" with stories of his life, embellished and picked apart to be interesting. At the moment, he's dealing with a severely bad time, his partner Jess (Bobby Cannavale), has moved out and it's affecting his work.

One of his friends, Ashe (Joe Morton), decides to give Gabriel something to help take his mind off of his troubles -- a biography written by Pete D. Logand (Rory Culkin), a boy whose parents were pedophiles and he's suffering from diseases passed on to him. Pete happens to be a huge fan of Gabriel's and gets a hold of his phone number. The two start corresponding, forging a relationship to help each other pass the time.

But something is off. Jess visits Gabriel one day and at the same time Pete calls and his adoptive mother, Donna D. Logand (Toni Collette), gets on the phone as well. Jess notes how similar Donna and Pete's voices are and warns Gabriel that this could be a hoax; that Donna is actually Pete. Gabriel, unnerved by the situation, goes searching for the answers of Pete's existence.

Director Patrick Stettner works with "The Night Listener" author Armistead Maupin to create a screenplay worthy of both the novel and the big screen.

"The Night Listener" is mysterious, drawing viewers into the story as they wish and hope that Pete is real. It's hard to tell whether or not this is just another fictitious tale Gabriel tells his listening audience, or whether he really witnessed this set of events.

For the first time, audiences will see Williams in a serious relationship, albeit a crumbling relationship, but it's one which isn't associated with a joke. Viewers see him struggling to accept that Jess isn't coming back anytime soon and see him latch on to Pete while refusing to believe that he exists.

Collette plays a chameleon, who viewers see in all sorts of different light. She gets the audience to believe what she says and then they will start to doubt her, just as Gabriel does.

Also amongst "The Night Listener" cast playing Anna, Gabriel's maid slash friend, the Emmy nominated Sandra Oh. Frankly, she's an amazing actress, but the only reason she's in this movie is to diagnose Donna as having a form of Munchausen's, like her character in "Grey's Anatomy" would.

There are so many twists and turns, "The Night Listener" will have you guessing up until the end.