The Guilty is an artistic rendition that simulates expertly the overwhelming anxiety of a 911 operator in a world that’s falling apart around him. The film is helmed by an absolute standout performance from Jake Gyllenhaal, who never fails to disappoint. He embodies the angst and stress Joe Baylor is under so perfectly and helps to heighten this looming stressful atmosphere with his own rising unease with the scenario. The disembodied star-studded cast are also fantastic, particularly Riley Keough who gives an unnerving and nuanced voice performance that really sells the twist.
For being a single location film as well the direction was impressive, there’s a clear rise in tension throughout the film which Fuqua skilfully allows to seep into the film slowly and leaves you towards the end reaching for an inhaler just like Joe. The anxiety is further enhanced by the editing, which again for being a film in a single location was impressive, and the score, but the score should have been utilised more as it really could’ve powerfully conveyed and enhanced the stress in the audience. The film was pretty stressful by itself so I’m not sure everyone would’ve enjoyed that but it could’ve made the experience more dramatic and make the twists and turns even more tense.
Now, for what really irked me about this film: it’s plot and the messaging. So the A plot is where this film shines, it’s where all the tension builds effortlessly, it’s paced perfectly, the dialogue is smart, it just keeps audiences engaged the entire time. At the same time we have a B plot running that surrounds Joe’s troubled past as a cop and it’s not revealed until later in the film what that troubled past was. For one, the tension and pacing of this “mystery” was awful and it’s predictable what happened to Joe anyway. But that’s not the problem for me, the problem arises with the way the film chooses to depict Joe and his actions.
*Spoilers* We find out that Joe abused his powers as a cop and shot a 19 year old boy. Placing this film within the recent context of policing, specifically in America, highlights how much of a problem police brutality is yet how the film then chooses to light Joe after we find this out seems so distasteful. Joe seems to find relief in confessing to both Emily and the Los Angeles Times and the way the film frames his confession feels like we should be happy for him, that he learned to be honest and deserves redemption. Now I’m not saying that he isn’t but it seems to contradict the start of the film when he’s blasé about his job and people phoning in for his help, also he’s been doing this job for 8 months and suddenly he feels remorseful after this one event?
It all just felt too on the nose and I didn’t like how it tried to paint police brutality as this excusable and easily redeemable thing, I know that’s not what the film was going for but that’s where it landed for me. Having Joe have a complete moral 180 and to make the audience sympathise with him is dangerous as it sets a standard that police brutality is something that can be redeemed by owning up to it, when the problem is the abuse of power in the first place. The ending would’ve been better if the audience wasn’t told what to think and simply ending with no bias, this would spark insightful conversations around police brutality which is needed right now.
I want to note that before seeing this film I was unaware that it was an American remake of a Danish film so take from that what you will but I judged the film based on how I enjoyed what I watched and not on it being a remake.
★★★1/2
