orking from a script that he wrote with Maupin and Terry Anderson, director Patrick Stettner brings the troubling "The Night Listener" to the big screen. Robin Williams is Gabriel Noone, the gay and depressed host of a radio show called "Noone at Night." He lives in a world of imagination, dishing out somewhat personal tales for late-night listeners on his syndicated show. He “massages” the stories to ease the sting of his own uncomfortable situations.

Gabriel's partner ("Will & Grace's" Bobby Cannavale) has left him for a younger man, and his father regards his middle-age gay son as a black sheep. Sadness ensues, until his publisher (Joe Morton) asks him to read a manuscript, the allegedly true story of 14-year old Pete Logand (Rory Culkin) who has suffered inconceivable sexual abuse at the hands of his parents, who are now in jail. Pete is a fan of Gabriel's show, and when he calls from Wisconsin, the radio host is impressed by his intelligence and moved by the boy's determination to write the book.

He begins a long-distance friendship with the boy and the social worker who adopted him, Donna (Toni Collette). The two speak on the phone regularly and a relationship begins to brew, but it becomes evident that the boy might not be entirely real; when some of Gabriel's friends overhear a voice message on Gabriel's answering machine, they suggest that Donna may be impersonating Pete's voice, and perhaps a literary hoax is in the works.

Eager to find out the truth for himself, Gabriel catches a flight to Wisconsin, and does some amateur sleuthing to find Donna and Pete. He finds her, and experiences other surprises. According to Donna, Pete contracted AIDS while being sexually exploited by his birth parents. But, Pete's editor, it turns out, has never met the boy; and Donna repeatedly insists that Pete's bad health rules out visits. Not wanting to give up, Gabe treks around to the city's various hospitals, hoping to find the boy; alas he doesn't find the answers he needs.