The Guilty — Movie Review
by KJ Proulx
Movies that take place in one room for the entire duration are hit or miss with me. I either admire and love how the film keeps me on my feet or feel disappointed when a premise feels wasted or too boring. In the case of The Guilty, it was a bit of both for me. I actually had no prior knowledge of the foreign film that this film is a remake of, so I can’t exactly comment on the comparison of the two. Here’s why I believe if you’re scrolling through Netflix, you can choose a lot worse than The Guilty.
After being demoted from officer to working at a call center, Joe Baylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) becomes personally involved when a woman is kidnapped. Doing everything he can with what little power he has left as an officer, his goal is simply to make sure she stays alive. The phone calls are very engaging and that’s what held my attention, but I honestly felt like the film didn’t have enough substance surrounding the story overall. Yes, the film is effective, but I also didn’t feel any emotion when the characters did. This film didn’t win me over in that area and it was clearly trying to.
What that said, what saved the aspects that didn’t work for me was the great central performance by Gyllenhaal. He’s always giving his all, but his talent is on full display here as basically the only one with real screen time. Although I didn’t buy into the drama, his performance still sold it well. If for nothing else, he makes this film so much better than it is. There are also a few surprise voice cameos over the phone that I didn’t realize until after my viewing.
Director Antoine Fuqua is at the helm as director here and with a screenplay penned by Nic Pizzolatto, that pairing had me eager to see this. From True Detective to even his solid work on The Magnificent Seven, I’ve always admired his ability to write great or at least fun dialogue. It was the gripping dialogue during phone calls that really got me engaged and that’s very much due to his writing skills. I just wish the film had more to say than what it presented as the end result.
Overall, The Guilty isn’t a great movie by any means, but I had a good time watching it and it kept me on the edge of my seat. Honestly, that’s very commendable for a film like this, because I believe that’s all it was trying to do. Again, Jake Gyllenhaal sells all of the dialogue very well and the script only helped him out. If you’re looking through Netflix, I’d say give this one a shot, but it’s not a necessary viewing. The Guilty is now streaming and it’s a well-made little one-location thriller.
Rating: 3/5
Check out the trailer below:
