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★★★½☆
7 October 2018
A movie review of THE GUILTY. |
"It's dark. I can't breathe," Nikolaj (Simon Bennebjerg)
A phone rings. Headphone on. "Help me," comes over the line. GPS on the screen reveals the approximate location of a call to the nearest Danish cell tower. In the age of the surveillance state, I'm surprised the police tech is not more pinpoint.
Asger Holm (Jakob Cedergren) undertakes emergency call centre work while awaiting his trial tomorrow. We have to wait a long time to find out what he is accused of. It's going to be a shattering night for him. The audience are going to be taken on an 85-minute ride that only utilises two rooms. Sound design of sirens, acceleration, crying, rain, etc is deftly employed. (Before you get too impressed, remember Ryan Reynolds' BURIED (2010) was set entirely within a coffin.)
A phone rings. Headphone on. "Help me," comes over the line. GPS on the screen reveals the approximate location of a call to the nearest Danish cell tower. In the age of the surveillance state, I'm surprised the police tech is not more pinpoint.
Asger Holm (Jakob Cedergren) undertakes emergency call centre work while awaiting his trial tomorrow. We have to wait a long time to find out what he is accused of. It's going to be a shattering night for him. The audience are going to be taken on an 85-minute ride that only utilises two rooms. Sound design of sirens, acceleration, crying, rain, etc is deftly employed. (Before you get too impressed, remember Ryan Reynolds' BURIED (2010) was set entirely within a coffin.)
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The film subtly suggests Asger is not a wholesome untouchable Elliot Ness-esque cop. His barely concealed impatience with callers is obvious. (Anyone who has worked at a call centre can surely attest that dealing with the public is energy sapping.) At first calls are either frustrating or a bit comical, lulling the audience into a false chilled attitude. Tension is ramped when a woman, Iben (Jessica Dinnage), calls distraught to say she has been kidnapped. Asger's indifference drops away and he becomes career-ending invested, not leaving the police work to those in the field. As the cliché goes: The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Iben is pretending she is talking to her daughter while on the phone to Asger. She is distressed. Asger has to ask questions with yes/no answers to try and discover who has her and where they are going. All he can tell is north of Copenhagen.
As information is eked out to Asger (and the audience), assumptions are quickly made. Iben's domestic situation appears fraught, as we discover that the abductor is her ex-husband, Michael (Johan Olsen), who has a criminal record. THE GUILTY shows the danger of not having the full picture.
THE GUILTY is far better than the overrated LOCKE (2013), where Tom Hardy is on the phone talking about concrete for 85 minutes, indie war flick DRONES (2013), and horror movie PONTYPOOL (2008). If you like this type of claustrophobia, check out EXAM (2009), though that does have an inadequate ending if memory serves. THE GUILTY is a taut thriller that could be a play. The limitations are used efficiently.
A myriad of topics are touched upon, from toxic masculinity and excessive police violence to mental health. And THE GUILTY is surprisingly tragic.
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