Review: The Guilty – Gyllenhaal carries the claustrophobic drama on his shoulders
It is a particularly difficult task director Antoine Fuqua (Equalizer, The Magnificent Seven) has embarked on, but by and large he succeeds with the remake of the Danish thriller.
Three years ago, the Danish film was released The guilty, to the Swedish director Gustav Möller. The plot sent around a Copenhagen policeman who, after an unregulated shooting episode, was set to answer emergency calls. This year, Möller has teamed up with Antoine Fuqua, and is responsible for the script for Netflix’s American remake.
The setting has moved from a major role in Copenhagen to a chaotic LA that is a violent forest fire. Our husband is police officer Joe Baylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) who is temporarily, pending a court hearing, set to answer 911 calls.
The protagonist Baylor is obviously stressed, irritable and nervous; at the same time his suffering from asthma. He has a trial the following morning, which may end up costing him the job, and at home it’s just chaos after his wife threw him out a few months ago and almost refuses contact with his young daughter.
Baylor lets frustration and anger go beyond colleagues and callers in need. A man who has been robbed by a prostitute is the latter and asked to take along, while a desperate man, after and large doping, is harassed for having taken illegal drugs. Then it rings in a phone that turns the evening on its head.
A crying, almost whispering, woman named Riley (a scary god Riley Keough) tells mumbling and uncertain that she is in danger. By passwords and circumvention, it appears that she has been kidnapped by her ex-husband, and fears being imprisoned. At home, the well-being of the two young children is unclear.
It develops into an intense cat-and-mouse play there Baylor tries to get out of information to identify the car and stop the drama. At the same time, all the emergency services are at the breaking point in the work of staging the inferno-like forest fires.
On top of it all, constantly calling and reporter asking for Baylor’s version of the shooting episode while desperately trying to patch up the relationship with the ex.
Find the popcorn!
If your dream is to see Mark Wahlberg pop open a jumbo jet with a samurai sword – then Infinite is definitely the movie for you!
The format is as far as possible, as it is possible to get to Fuqua’s latest testosterone bomb of an action movie, Infinite, but he masters both genres, not least thanks to an excellent Gyllenhaal.
The Guilty (Photo: Netflix)
Except for a few seconds along the highway, the entire film takes place inside calls to LA 911 Police Department. As the drama increases, we get more and more stress and irrational Baylor, who goes further and further into police legal gray areas.
One and a half hours before fire walls make it more difficult to keep up the dramaturgy, and it is not the whole course of action that appears credible. That said so have The guilty has become an occasionally intense thriller with claustrophobic features down into the human psyche, topped by Gyllenhaal in his ace – full on par with the original. 4 strong stars.