the guilty 2018 movie review

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At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the first film that really started a buzz was from the relatively under-promoted World Dramatic Competition, Gustav Möller ’s “The Guilty,” now finally opening in limited release. It’s easy to see why so many critics and viewers have taken to this laser-focused study of a man whose prejudices and assumptions enhance a tense day on the job. With its single setting and real-time story, “The Guilty” is a brilliant genre exercise, a cinematic study in tension, sound design, and how to make a thrilling movie with a limited tool box. The film’s own restrictions actually amplify the tension, forcing us into the confined space of its protagonist.

The opening moments of “The Guilty” might feel like mere wheel-spinning until the “real story” kicks in but they’re essential to why the film really works. In them, we meet Asger Holm (Jacob Cedergren) a Danish police officer embroiled in a bit of a controversy, and so stuck at an Emergency Services (their version of 911) call center until it blows over. We get snippets of conversation about a testimony tomorrow and learn that he no longer lives with his significant other, but we don’t know the details—these are just elements that add to the fabric of tension, and reveal that Asger is under a lot of stress.

Asger is also kind of a jerk. In his role as the provider of necessary, often life-saving services, he can be judgmental and abrasive. A few calls early in the film reveal this character trait as he scolds one caller for taking drugs and allows another who has been mugged by a prostitute to stew in his bad decision before sending help. The idea that Asger isn’t as free from assumptions about the people who call him as he should be sets him up as a flawed character. And so when he gets a call that will change his life, we know that he’s already imperfect—and that could impact how the night unfolds.

The call comes from a woman, who Asger identifies through his call system as Iben. She sounds like she’s in trouble but she’s not making a lot of sense. We soon learn, with Asger, that she can’t exactly say what’s wrong but she alludes to a very bad situation, and our protagonist soon gets sucked into the nightmare she’s experiencing. Well, he gets sucked into his interpretation of what she’s experiencing. “The Guilty” is a complex examination of how commonly we make assumptions about other people—how easily we can take a limited amount of information and fill in the gaps in a way that’s not always right. Just as he blames the drug taker for making a bad decision without knowing anything about what led up to that decision, he jumps to conclusions with Iben that prove to be his downfall.

In a sense, all of us make variations on the mistakes that Asger makes in this film, only with less terrifying results (I hope). Think about how often we use a tweet or a text in ways to read the mind of the person sending it. One of the masterstrokes of “The Guilty” is how identifiable Asger feels. Even though he’s not exactly likable, we want him to pull out of the tailspin he’s in on this night, and “The Guilty” gains another level of complexity when Asger realizes that this night is allowing our hero to see how he got here—the aforementioned controversy—in a whole new light.

“The Guilty” is a tight, excellent piece of work that will likely be seen by way too few and forgotten in the year-end conversation. Denmark has submitted it for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, a category that can often be hard to predict but typically goes with more recognizable auteurs or movies dense with internationally resonant social messages. It’s been a phenomenal year for this category with films like “ Roma ,” “Shoplifters,” and “Burning” almost certain to pop up. Those Cannes and TIFF hits deserve their acclaim, but don’t forget about the film from Sundance.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film credits.

The Guilty (2018)

Jakob Cedergren as Asger Holm

Jessica Dinnage as Iben

Omar Shargawi as Rashid

Johan Olsen as Michael

Katinka Evers-Jahnsen as Mathilde

Jeanette Lindbæk as Vagtleder Nordsjælland

Simon Bennebjerg as Junkie

Laura Bro as Journalist

Jacob Ulrik Lohmann as Bo

• Gustav Möller
• Emil Nygaard Albertsen

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The Guilty review – a must-see masterclass in cinematic suspense

Gustav Möller’s low-key debut takes one man, a dark room and a phone – and crafts a cop thriller as riveting as any blockbuster

G odard said that all you need to make a film is a girl and a gun. Well, with his smart and mercilessly gripping abduction thriller, the Danish director Gustav Möller has pulled it off with a middle-aged man and a hands-free phone. Like the Tom Hardy movie Locke , this is a one-man show, claustrophobically confined to a single location – a drab office where deskbound cop Asger (Jakob Cedergren) is responding to 999 calls. Miraculously, Möller turns a handful of phone conversations into a nerve shredder.

Asger is dealing with the usual drunks and muggings when he picks the phone up to a kidnapped woman. He transfers the call to the police, but as the clock ticks he becomes frustrated by their slowness and takes matters in his own hands – staying on the line to the terrified woman, then making calls to her kidnapper and her six-year-old daughter, home alone. What makes this all so compelling is a knockout performance by Cedergren, who reminded me a little of a Danish Paddy Considine. The details of his face – a twitch, the slight throb of a vein on his forehead – are as riveting as the police chases we don’t see.

The film is a card-calling achievement for the first-time film-maker Möller, who pulls the strings with icy calculation. But there’s more to The Guilty than a race against the clock. Drop by drop, information is fed to us about the incident that left Asger confined to desk duty.On the phone, he also veers wildly from the what-to-say-to-in-a-kidnap-scenario instructions given out at police academy. Is Asger a good guy going the extra mile, or does he have a dangerous delusion of himself as a crusading cop? Or is it more complicated than that? What a flat-out brilliant film this is – it’s Denmark’s entry for the best foreign language Oscar. As with all these Scandi-noirs, the title sounds far more chilling in Danish: Den skyldige . It may start a trend for call centre thrillers.

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• Just Try to Look Away From Jake Gyllenhaal’s Gripping Performance in <i>The Guilty</i>

Just Try to Look Away From Jake Gyllenhaal’s Gripping Performance in  The Guilty

T here are some actors so intense, their nerve endings sizzling so close to the surface, that they can make you want to look away. That’s Jake Gyllenhaal , as a disgraced Los Angeles police detective demoted to 911 dispatcher, in Antoine Fuqua’s stripped-down cop drama The Guilty. The film is opening in select theaters and will be available on Netflix on Oct. 1 as well, though Gyllenhaal’s performance is a test of what we look for in, and take away from, those two modes of watching . Viewing at home, you can take a break if the intensity of Gyllenhaal’s performance becomes too much. But the big-screen effect would surely be different: you may want to look away from Gyllenhaal, a jittery hypnotist, but it’s doubtful you’ll be able.

On the eve of his trial for a crime whose nature is only hinted at (though we can guess), Gyllenhaal’s Joe Baylor receives an emergency call that sets off every sensor. The woman on the line, her voice vibrating with nervous tears, acts as if she’s speaking to her child, but Baylor knows how to read her code. He deduces that she’s been abducted, and he pulls every lever in the system to locate and save her, though raging wildfires in the area have left all local branches of law enforcement understaffed. Somehow, the woman’s plight mingles with Baylor’s own personal problems, complicating her rescue.

This picture, a remake of Gustav Möller’s 2018 Danish film of the same name, isn’t strictly a one-man show: it’s Riley Keough ’s voice we hear as the abducted caller. Baylor’s exasperated boss is played by Christina Vidal—she corrects him repeatedly and wearily, a suggestion that his snappish anxiety has alienated everyone around him.

But it’s Gyllenhaal who owns the screen. He has worked with Fuqua before—they made the brutalist boxing drama Southpaw together—though this time, thanks to COVID-related complications, Fuqua directed the movie from a van, maintaining contact with cast and crew from a distance. What must it have been like to capture the serrated intimacy of this performance at that remove? Gyllenhaal’s Baylor is a man on the edge of time, reckoning with a deed he can’t take back and a possible future built on lies. Few actors can put this kind of raw yet strangely companionable self-loathing onscreen—and make you glad you didn’t avert your eyes, no matter how much you wanted to.

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‘The Guilty’ Review: Dial R for Redemption

Jake Gyllenhaal plays an imploding 911 operator in this riveting remake.

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By Jeannette Catsoulis

Whether you favor Gustav Moller’s 2018 Danish drama, “The Guilty,” or the Netflix remake of the same name will depend on whether you prefer your thrillers acoustic or electric, chilly or hot-wired. It will also hinge on your answer to the question, How many close-ups of Jake Gyllenhaal are too many?

Embellishing Moller’s jangly psychological study with Los Angeles color, the director Antoine Fuqua and his screenwriter Nic Pizzolatto have amped the original film’s energy a smidge and marginally widened its perspective. The plot’s relentlessly clambering tension, though largely identical to the original, is catnip to Gyllenhaal, into whose tortured eyes and sweating pores the camera happily descends. As Joe Baylor, a disgraced L.A.P.D. officer temporarily assigned to an emergency call center, the actor builds to an all-caps-plus-exclamation-point performance; that he does so without losing his grip — on us or the character — is some kind of miracle.

When we meet him, Joe is already approaching his last nerve. As flaring wildfires and other emergencies fill the huge screens that overlook the operators on duty, he’s in the bathroom, gasping through an asthma attack. Back at his desk, he rudely swats away the callers he deems less than emergent, curtly processing the rest. It’s the eve of his disciplinary hearing for the unspecified offense that has landed him in this purgatory, and his resentment and boredom are obvious.

Then a woman calls, in what initially appears to be a wrong number as she’s addressing a child, and we can see Joe’s on-the-job instincts click into gear. His face and body suddenly alert, he questions her and deduces that she is being kidnapped and that her abductor is armed. What follows is a taut cat-and-mouse, conducted entirely by telephone, as Joe, instead of following protocol and handing off to other agencies, frantically attempts to solve the crime himself. Only later, as we glean more about his personal life, do we suspect his investment in this woman’s safety might be something more than professional.

Thanks to a vibrant voice cast that includes Riley Keough, Peter Sarsgaard and Ethan Hawke, “The Guilty” helps us to visualize its unexpectedly shocking offscreen twists and turns. Maz Makhani’s cinematography is glossily seductive, finding ever new angles to ogle Joe at his computer, while Marcelo Zarvos’s canny musical score resists thrusting itself into every verbal hiatus. When Joe sucks on his inhaler, we hear every wheeze.

Essentially a one-man show, “The Guilty” necessarily vibrates to the rhythms of its lead. As the original Joe, Jakob Cedergren was cooler and more physically restrained, perfectly in tune with his movie’s stripped-down aesthetic. In Gyllenhaal’s hands — and feet and everything in between — “The Guilty” becomes a more combustible portrait of mental breakdown. Joe, losing his grip on everything that matters, needs to find this woman before it’s too late. He desperately needs a save.

The Guilty Rated R for bad words and horrible pictures in your head. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. Watch on Netflix.

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A police officer assigned alarm dispatch duty enters a race against time when he answers an emergency call from a kidnapped woman. A police officer assigned alarm dispatch duty enters a race against time when he answers an emergency call from a kidnapped woman. A police officer assigned alarm dispatch duty enters a race against time when he answers an emergency call from a kidnapped woman.

• Gustav Möller
• Emil Nygaard Albertsen
• Jakob Cedergren
• Jessica Dinnage
• Omar Shargawi
• 295 User reviews
• 196 Critic reviews
• 83 Metascore
• 38 wins & 43 nominations

• (as Johan Olsen)

• (as Jacob Hauberg Lohmann)
• Vagtleder Nordsjælland

• Mand på Skælbækgade
• Mand ved natklub
• Fuld kvinde

• Politiassistent i hus
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• Alarmoperatør #1
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Did you know

• Trivia The genesis of the film was a YouTube clip of a kidnapped woman calling an emergency dispatcher while her kidnapper sat nearby. Director Gustav Möller was struck by how much an audio clip could convey on its own with no visual accompaniment.
• Goofs When Asger is having a phone conversation (1:11:30) his forefinger is on the cell phone but in the next scene the forefinger is on his cheek.

Vagtleder Nordsjælland : Good job, Asger.

• Connections Featured in La noche de...: La Noche de... The Guilty (2022)
• Soundtracks Untitled Composed by Lasse Martinussen

User reviews 295

• asifahsankhan
• Nov 27, 2018
• How long is The Guilty? Powered by Alexa
• October 19, 2018 (United States)
• Det Danske Filminstitut (Denmark)
• Nordisk Film Spring (Denmark)
• Nordisk Film / SPRING
• Nordisk Film Production
• Det Danske Filminstitut
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• Oct 21, 2018

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 25 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Bilal Zouheir

What it's about.

Highly recommend. It’s not easy to make a suspenseful film with effectively one character on screen keeping the action going.

At times it felt too stretched apart from that it was a good movie and really good thriller

Littlebigfan

Incredible. The entire frightening story exists only in your imagination

sujanthereaper

The movie makes best use of sound and little bit of our imagination to create a gripping thriller, mystery and emotion.

Amazing. I started this movie laying on my bed, at some point the suspense has me sitting-up unable to lean back.

A taut story that keeps you with it to the ultimate conclusion.

Ros Enriquez

can you please give us a Danish movie that has a fantastic acting so that we can compare?

Amazing Ride!

Karthik Acharya

yep! the review by the website is spot on! worth watching!

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REVIEW: “The Guilty” (2018)

By now it’s pretty obvious that a hefty budget or a grand scale doesn’t automatically equal a good thriller. In fact several movies have shown the opposite to be true. The Danish film “The Guilty” is the latest glowing example of how great writing and a good actor’s steely intensity is more than enough for a genuinely gripping thriller.

Director and co-writer Gustav Möller’s feature debut doesn’t suffer a bit from the film’s obvious small budget. Instead he utilizes it by restricting his entire story within one space while at the same time allowing our imaginations to do the bulk of the heavy lifting. And the entire framework of his story is built around a taut, economical narrative that is confined by demand.

Jakob Cedergren is the movie’s engine. He drives the entire film appearing in every frame of every scene. He plays Asger, an operator for Copenhagen emergency services (akin to our 911 here in the States) who receives a mysterious call from a distraught woman named Iben (voiced by Jessica Dinnage). She relays to Asger that she has been kidnapped but is disconnected before giving much more information.

“The Guilty” spends its brisk 85 minutes following Asger as he parses the various voices he encounters through his headset. We only hear these people through phone conversations, but when combined with Cedergren’s spot-on intensity, we are given more than enough to compose our own mental images and develop our own conclusions.

The genius of “The Guilty” is that it never feels gimmicky or contrived. Möller’s screenplay (co-written by Emil Nygaard Albertsen) creates tension and then ratchets it up through smart and crafty story twists that come about in the most organic of ways.  It also maintains an undeniable Hitchcockian flavor which Möller leans into.

“The Guilty” is the Danish entry for the Best Foreign Language category at the upcoming Oscars and hopefully it will find a spot at the table. It’s a riveting thriller deserving of the attention and of broader exposure. And as I mentioned, it is another example of how a minimalist approach from an inspired filmmaker can be incredibly effective when the writing is sharp and you have a lead performer as convincing as Cedergren. Give this film a look.

VERDICT – 4.5 STARS

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11 thoughts on “ review: “the guilty” (2018) ”.

How refreshing

Definitely. This thing really surprised me. Hope you can check it out.

Thanks for the head’s up. Looks great.

It’s really really good. I was glued to every word trying to catch every verbal clue. It’s so smartly written. I think you’ll enjoy it.

I think so, too.

Glad to hear you enjoyed. My only gripe is would a police officer under suspicion of misconduct still be on duty? I guess assigning him a different job (not on the streets) was deemed an appropriate move, but I don’t buy him still at work given the nature of his possible wrongdoing. A very good thriller despite this issue. To me, Lykke-Per (2018) (aka A Fortunate Man) is the best Danish film of the year. In fact I’d go so far as to call it a modern classic. Don’t think it got an international release yet.

I can see where you’re coming from but it didn’t really bother me. I think they intentionally keep us enough in the dark to keep us from fully knowing those details. I think that’s why I didn’t think as much about it.

I think this is in my watchlist. I’m glad to know that you think it’s really good.

Fantastic! Love hearing from others who are familiar with it. It deserves an audience.

Sold. Will watch!

Awesome! I think you’ll be glad you did.

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clock This article was published more than  2 years ago

‘The Guilty,’ starring Jake Gyllenhaal, is a handsomely efficient one-man show

Jake Gyllenhaal delivers a canny, screen-owning performance in “The Guilty,” Antoine Fuqua’s note-for-note adaptation of Gustav Moller’s 2018 Danish film “Den Skyldige.” As Los Angeles police detective Joe Baylor, Gyllenhaal is all tightly coiled tension and volcanic rage: We meet him in the bathroom of the police department’s 911 call center, where he’s sucking on an asthma inhaler with the desperation of a dying man.

Joe isn’t exactly in extremis, but by the time this alternately absorbing and baggy real-time thriller runs its course, one of the mysteries to be solved is just who will get out alive. It’s clear that Joe isn’t happy wearing a headset and answering emergency calls, but precisely why he’s there remains hidden for much of the film; he’s clearly atoning for something, the contours of which come into focus in the course of his response to various callers (“Call an Uber and don’t bike drunk,” he barks to young man asking for an ambulance), as well as to his colleagues, whom he treats with an annoying combination of bullying arrogance and antisocial disdain.

Anyone who has appreciated Gyllenhaal’s commanding star turns in such movies as “ Nightcrawler ” and Fuqua’s “ Southpaw ” will recognize right away that this is prime fodder for another outstanding performance: With the exception of one or two co-workers at the dispatch center, Joe is the only character we see during “The Guilty’s” hour-and-a-half running time. (A diverting parlor game is to identify the actors playing the voices coming through his earphones.) Furiously tapping on various phone buttons and staring at his computer screen while wild fires rage on the giant monitors across from him, Joe is a muscle-bound bundle of pent-up fury and recrimination; Gyllenhaal plays him with haunted intensity that’s simultaneously admirable and unnerving.

Like such similarly structured films as “ Locke ” and “ Phone Booth ,” “The Guilty” takes a page from radio plays of yore, where the drama emanates from both the ticktock factor and the voices on the other end of the line. As the film raises the stakes with ever more manipulative and unpersuasive twists (the most climactic of which is painfully obvious), it begins to feel commensurately protracted and overwrought; the narrative tension becomes less about the story at hand than whether Gyllenhaal will maintain his superb control even as “The Guilty” descends into hysterically pitched melodrama and weepy histrionics.

He does, thanks to his own actorly focus and Fuqua’s willingness to follow his protagonist closely, occasionally zooming in on environmental details like a coffee cup or the red call light that sits menacingly — and then teasingly — on Joe’s desk.

Reportedly, Gyllenhaal put “The Guilty” into production as a practical way to overcome the strictures of pandemic-era filmmaking; it was filmed in an economical 11 days, with a stripped-down cast and crew. For its eventual lurid machinations and hyped-up emotionalism, the film winds up being a handsomely efficient one-man show. Like the man Gyllenhaal so convincingly embodies, it gets the job done, even if it inevitably goes over the top.

R.  Available on Netflix. Contains strong language throughout. 91 minutes.

‘The Guilty’ Review: Jake Gyllenhaal Turns a Routine Emergency Into a Conflicted Cop’s Trial by Fire

This is the kind of project more people should have been making during the pandemic: a virtual one-man show built around a high-stakes 911 call.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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Who is (or are) “ The Guilty ” referenced in Antoine Fuqua ’s tense new Netflix thriller, adapted from the 2018 Danish film of the same name? The title obviously matters, since the “Training Day” director kept it. Fact is, Fuqua changes precious little in what amounts to a pretty direct remake of a nervy, adrenaline-rush crisis-management movie, one that tracks a more-complex-than-it-seems abduction from the limited perspective of a conflicted emergency services phone operator.

Transferred from Copenhagen to Los Angeles, where it unfolds in the midst of a massive wildfire outbreak, “The Guilty” stars Jake Gyllenhaal and barely anyone else. (Riley Keough, Paul Dano and Ethan Hawke lend their voices, but it’s Gyllenhaal’s big blue eyes we’re watching for the better part of 90 minutes.) That’s the high-concept hook Fuqua’s adaptation more than satisfies: The camera hardly ever leaves Gyllenhaal, who plays Joe Baylor, a cop who’s been temporarily demoted from patrolling the streets to answering calls at a 911 communications center.

While the other operators do their adequate, professional best, Joe goes above and beyond. If a cat got stuck in a tree, you can imagine him dispatching the entire fire department to save it (and don’t forget, they’re plenty busy dealing with the wildfires raging on the TV news screens that make up one wall of this otherwise nondescript boiler room), or else transferring the call to his iPhone and driving down there to rescue it himself. Watching, you can’t help wishing that U-verse phone operators were this dedicated, rather than putting you on hold for 45 minutes and still failing to resolve your issue.

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Joe craves action, and being stuck at a desk isn’t about to stop him from tracking down the bad guys. Make no mistake: This is an action movie, even if the action is largely confined to Joe’s fingertips: the panicky way he picks up a call, the speed-dial buttons he pushes to ring California Highway Patrol or the Los Angeles Police Department. His digits are constantly fidgeting. As Joe, Gyllenhaal sweats, he swears, he furrows his brow and flexes his arms. You’re supposed to be watching his face, but even his triceps are acting — or distracting , as the case may be. If screenwriter Nic Pizzolatto could have figured out a way for Joe to take his shirt off, he surely would.

But “The Guilty” remains a largely faithful retelling of director Gustav Möller’s calling-card debut, a breakout of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival that was selected as Denmark’s submission (and later shortlisted) in the Oscar international feature race. The project originated as a tight piece of writing: a sly single-location stunt that puts us in the high-stress position of hearing but not seeing a frightening domestic abuse situation as it unfolds. It kicks off with a distress call from an abducted woman (here, Keough’s Emily) pretending to speak to her 6-year-old daughter, and by allowing us to hear both sides of the conversation, spins a whole white-knuckle scenario in our imaginations.

The less audiences know about the twists in store, the better. Like “Buried” or “Searching,” the movie makes the most of its limitations. But there’s a major miscalculation in the way Gyllenhaal plays it, so different from the “keep calm and carry on” energy of Jakob Cedergren’s performance in the earlier film. Fuqua doesn’t approach this as a business-as-usual 911 call but as a full-blown life-or-death emergency. Los Angeles may be burning in the background, but Joe Baylor has chosen to treat the kidnapping with the urgency of a “24” season finale.

Why is he so committed to resolving this particular crisis? Why does he insist, when speaking with Emily’s daughter, on telling the worried girl that police “protect people”? The movie is titled “The Guilty,” remember, and Fuqua doubles down on the notion that Joe’s conscience is in turmoil and that this job — heck, this call — could make a difference in deciding the court hearing at which he’s scheduled to appear the next day.

Society needs police, this film’s politically engaged subtext seems to be saying, but what happens when the social contract breaks down? (In one moment, Joe glimpses what appears to be a Black Lives Matter protest on TV, and winces at the sight of a burning squad car.) Yes, police are supposed to help people, but sometimes they don’t — more often than the system is willing to admit. And how do they earn back the public’s trust when that happens? Best intentions aside, maybe Joe Baylor isn’t a clear-cut hero cop. Maybe Emily’s emergency isn’t as straightforward as it sounds.

Like Gene Hackman’s character in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation” — a sound engineer who invents an elaborate conspiracy theory around a few words spoken by the couple on whom he’s eavesdropping — Joe could be interpreting the situation to suit his own agenda, responding to what he needs to hear in order to redeem himself. That’s a complex twist on your typical cop movie, bringing layers to “The Guilty” that make it more than just a very special episode of “CSI.” Gyllenhaal goes deep with the character, who’s every bit as tortured as the flashier ones he played in “Velvet Buzzsaw” and “Nightcrawler.”

Gyllenhaal’s impressive, but “The Guilty” almost certainly would have been more effective if he’d dialed down the intensity a bit. We see Joe wound up like this, and we don’t think, “Oh wow, some cops really take their role seriously” — we think, “This guy’s mental.” Even with his hands tied at this desk job, Joe can still pull in favors from his cop buddies to bust down doors and order street closures. Like one of those young Army recruits, remote-controlling lethal drones from halfway around the world, he’s got more power than makes sense. And the idea that all the excitement of this one night might lead him to make the call he does in his own life pushes the fantasy just one step too far.

Reviewed at Netflix screening room, Los Angeles, Sept. 7, 2021. (In Toronto Film Festival.) MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 90 MIN.

• Production: A Netflix release of a Netflix, Bold Films presentation, in association with Amet Entertainment of a Nine Stories Prods., Fuqua Films production. Producers: Jake Gyllenhaal, Riva Marker, David Litvak, Gary Michael Walters, David Haring, Michel Litvak, Svetlana Metkina, Antoine Fuqua, Scott Greenberg, Kat Samick. Executive producers: Annie Marter, Christian Mercuri, Jonathan Oakes, Justin Bursch, Gustav Möller, Lina Flint, Nic Pizzolatto, Eric Greenfeld.
• Crew: Director: Antoine Fuqua. Screenplay: Nic Pizzolatto, based on the film "The Guilty" directed by Gustav Möller and written by Möller, Emil Nygaard Albertsen.. Camera: Maz Makhani. Editor: Jason Ballantine. Music: Marcelo Zarvos.
• With: Jake Gyllenhaal, Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough, Christina Vidal Mitchell, Eli Goree, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, David Castañeda, Paul Dano, Peter Sarsgaard.

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The Guilty review: Jake Gyllenhaal goes ham in overwrought Netflix thriller

There's a great movie lurking somewhere in The Guilty (which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and streams on Netflix Oct. 1). Unfortunately that film already exists in the form of the fantastically fraught 2018 Danish drama from which this manic American remake takes its name, its premise, and so few of its thrills.

Jake Gyllenhaal , his hair buzzed and eyes hollowed, is Joe Baylor, an LAPD officer demoted to 911 desk duty after some unspecified offense. In between calls from paranoid addicts and huffy pickpocketed yuppies, he fields needling queries from a local newspaper reporter and repeatedly tries to reach his own estranged wife and child. Joe looks like a guy who hasn't slept well or had a square meal in a long time, so the words of a woman on the line named Emily (Riley Keough) sound like nonsense to him at first, breathy non sequiturs about babies and being out for a drive. When he realizes she's not a voluntary passenger in the car she's in, though, his instincts click in.

Suddenly Joe is all attention, and that's when we as an audience should be too — tracking down Emily and her two young children the killer hook the story's been waiting for. The movie's claustrophobic concept, too, is cleverly designed for dread: The camera never leaves the call center. But director Antoine Fuqua ( Training Day ) and True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto, who wrote the screenplay, can't stop turning the histrionics up to 11, underlining every moment and then planting a neon Post-It note on top. Gyllenhaal, too — who ricochets between righteous, furious, and outright unhinged — quickly surpasses logic, his character so extravagantly on edge you wonder whether he fistfights his own pants before he puts them on in the morning.

It makes sense then that various voices on the line, from Da'Vine Joy Randolph's overtaxed dispatcher to a gruff police sargeant portrayed by Ethan Hawke, tend to either handle him like a half-pinned grenade or wearily dismiss him. (Paul Dano, Peter Saarsgaard, and Bill Burr also appear off-screen). Even Joe's soon-to-be-ex, Jess (Gillian Zinser) sounds long past exhausted by his demands. Though a lot of Pizzolatto's script echoes the original, that character is only obliquely referred to in the 2018 version, which addresses her absence with one brief, devastating line. And that's a problem that Guilty runs into again and again: presuming its audience can't be trusted to follow the through-line of the story without being dragged there like reluctant horses.

That includes the early telegraphing of the central twist — though most disappointing, maybe, is the reversal of a major plot point it seems to commit to halfway through. Gyllenhaal and Fuqua, who made the 2016 boxing drama Southpaw together, have proved to be a solid team before; there's some room for overcooking in a narrative with a big showy canvas like that. And Guilty , for all its wild-eyed excess, does find some blunt-force propulsion for a while, particularly if you're coming to it new. But the movie seems to mistake the taut minimalism of the original for something that needs to be goosed and adrenalized, a thriller on constant defibrillator. Skip it and go directly to Denmark instead. Grade: C+

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Review: Antoine Fuqua, Jake Gyllenhaal mostly justify remake of ‘The Guilty’

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In Antoine Fuqua’s tense and toothy “The Guilty,” Jake Gyllenhaal shrugs and mugs. He cringes and cries. He snaps and snarls and takes frequent blasts of his inhaler, which is handy because, like the oxygenation equivalent of a movie drinking game, these interludes can serve as a useful reminder to viewers to breathe, despite the film doing its twisty, panic-attack best to make hysterical asthmatics of us all.

It’s unmistakably a remake of Gustav Möller’s largely unimprovable 2018 Danish original , but if it scarcely differentiates itself on a story level from “Den Skyldige,” Fuqua’s faithful reworking, given a gloss of L.A. relevance by screenwriter Nic Pizzolatto, does lean heavily into the one pleasure Möller’s film couldn’t boast: Gyllenhaal , glaring and growling, cracking up and breaking down, gasping down lungfuls of Ventolin the way a man underwater might suck on a snorkel.

The drowning man is Joe, a cop on suspension from street duty pending the next day’s trial, who has in the meantime been busted down to headset work as a 911 emergency operator. At first his night’s drama is chiefly personal, as amid 911 calls that range from amusingly whiny to bluntly abusive — not helped by Joe’s judgy, unpleasant phone manner — he also fields calls from a pushy L.A. Times reporter (Edi Patterson), from his recently estranged wife (Gillian Zinser) and from his erstwhile commanding officer (Ethan Hawke), all concerned for different reasons with his court case.

The dynamic changes — or perhaps Joe just finds a way to project all this stress outward onto something he thinks he might be able to control — when he picks up a call from Emily ( Riley Keough ). Pretending she’s talking to her 6-year-old daughter Abby (Christiana Montoya), Emily manages to communicate that she’s been kidnapped, and that she’s in a white van, before the connection drops.

As with the original film, a lot of fun here is in tracing Joe’s thought processes as the cop in him, frustrated by the inability of the overloaded emergency service personnel to assign more resources to finding Emily, starts to work the case from all angles available to him while he’s still pinned to his three-monitor desk setup in 911 HQ.

With almost all the actors other than Gyllenhaal delivering voice-only performances (Peter Sarsgaard and Paul Dano also feature) “The Guilty” is more or less a single-location thriller, but Maz Makhani’s glossily low-key camerawork, forever peeking at Joe from behind a computer and finding new angles of closeup on his strained, intense features, is varied enough to suggest claustrophobia without actively inducing it, and to give editor Jason Ballantine plenty of options for pacy, jittery cutting. And the mostly-one-guy-in-mostly-one-location approach also feels unusually well-suited to the laptops and living rooms that its Netflix release inevitably guarantees, not to mention being a canny way to make a slick genre entertainment under pandemic restrictions. (Fuqua directed much of the 11-day shoot from a van parked some way away following a close-contact COVID-19 scare).

Given its beat-for-beat similarity to the original, only this time with forest fires blazing in the background and a light dusting of very current American issues around an urban community grown understandably mistrustful of the police, “The Guilty” cannot singlehandedly justify the tired Hollywood practice of remaking perfectly serviceable films from abroad. But at the risk of having my purist cinephile credentials revoked, within its own very narrow parameters it perhaps does enough to justify its own existence.

Since even the original is predicated on our nervy, direct connection to this archetypal conflicted cop enduring his long, dark night shift of the soul, there is at least a case to be made that dispensing with subtitles and embellishing the action with a little local color and one of the most reliably committed Hollywood stars at work today, is, for English-speaking audiences, the maximum-impact delivery system for these expertly tooled generic twists and turns.

It’s not like there was ever that much to lose in translation from the 2018 film, which was a lean, efficient thrilling machine in its own right. Although maybe some flaws in internal logic — how come Joe gets so few other 911 calls? Why is he working at all the night before a trial so controversial the media are covering it in force? — if they existed in the original, didn’t seem quite so glaring in Danish. But treating its predecessor as simply the slender framework on which to hang a new, marginally different interpretation of the central character, the film moves like a whippet, and gives us ample opportunity to admire the vast range of facial expressions of which Gyllenhaal is capable, while still remaining just this side of overacting.

Not to suggest “The Guilty” is “Hamlet” or anything; it does deal in some odd psychological U-turns that even Gyllenhaal can’t quite sell, as when an unnecessary interpersonal clash or a dumb outburst instantly undoes the meticulous police work Joe has invested so much in, or when he temporarily seems to forget just what his real endgame is.

Still, as a portrait of a tortured man making the exact mistakes in his search for redemption that wind up being the source of a deeper, truer salvation, and as a surprisingly compassionate deconstruction of the snap judgments we often make about gender roles and mental instability (Keough’s voice work in the last act is particularly moving in this regard), the film delivers some insight.

“Broken people save broken people” is the rather unnecessary summation provided at one point, which is mildly ironic, considering that perhaps the highest praise we can lavish on Fuqua’s solid, enjoyable, easily watchable remake, is that beyond the addition of Gyllenhaal, it doesn’t try to fix anything that wasn’t broken in the first place.

'The Guilty'

Rated: R for language throughout. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes Playing: Starts Sept. 24, The Landmark, West Los Angeles; available Oct. 1 on Netflix

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Jake gyllenhaal in ‘the guilty’: film review | tiff 2021.

Antoine Fuqua directs this American remake of the taut 2018 Danish thriller.

By Michael Rechtshaffen

Michael Rechtshaffen

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A filmmaker with a firm grip on gritty action, Antoine Fuqua gamely takes up the challenge presented by The Guilty , a deceptively spare crime thriller that relies on the fertile imagination of the viewer to conjure up the usual highly charged set pieces.

Based on the 2018 Danish film by Gustav Moller that masterfully ratcheted up maximum tautness in minimal surroundings, the American remake stars typically dependable Jake Gyllenhaal as a police officer working in a dispatch center who receives a cryptic distress call from the victim of an abduction from inside a speeding vehicle.

Venue: Toronto Film Festival (Special Presentations)

Release date: Friday, Oct. 1

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, David Castaneda, Paul Dano, Peter Sarsgaard

Director: Antoine Fuqua

Screenwriter: Nic Pizzolatto

But although both Fuqua and his Southpaw star are essentially up to the task at hand, they’re let down by an exposition-heavy script that continually undercuts the crucial building tension. The film still offers Netflix viewers something that’s off the beaten track, but those unfamiliar with the cleverly crafted original will be getting only a diluted taste of what made the concept so bracingly effective.

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Anxious to get back out on the street, Gyllenhaal’s Joe Baylor is an LAPD cop relegated to 911 duty (for reasons soon to be revealed), robotically taking the usual crackpot calls against the imposing backdrop wall of huge TV news monitors displaying raging wildfires that threaten to engulf the city.

Frustratedly tethered to his headset, he’s jolted to attention by that hushed, tearful call from a woman (Riley Keough, heard but never seen), who, as Baylor is able to piece together, has been taken against her will by her estranged husband (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard), leaving their two young children home alone.

Doing the best he can given the limited information and resources at his disposal, Baylor battles a ticking clock to save the woman and, in the process, find some much-needed redemption where his own culpable past is concerned.

Those personal stakes are played out too early in Nic Pizzolatto’s script, rather than allowing for the chilling details surrounding the abduction to first build in necessary intensity.

Played out in real time on what is essentially a single set, the production mines all the energy it requires from Fuqua’s precise direction, which wisely keeps the focus nice and tight on Gyllenhaal, capturing every feverish moment of his palpable anguish. Perhaps, in this case, a bit too palpable. The thing about those extreme close-ups is that the slightest wrinkle of an eyebrow can come across as being over-modulated, and there are times when things threaten to reach an unintended melodramatic pitch.

As with the imposing images of the blazing inferno that surround him, the true potency of the film’s construction lies in the spark rather than the flame.

Full credits

Venue: Toronto Film Festival (Special Presentations) Distributor: Netflix Production companies: Bold Films, Amet Entertainment, Fuqua Films, Nine Stories Prods. Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, David Castaneda, Paul Dano, Peter Sarsgaard Director: Antoine Fuqua Screenwriter: Nic Pizzolatto Producers: Jake Gyllenhaal, Riva Marker, David Litvak, Gary Michael Walters, David Haring, Michel Litvak, Svetlana Metkina, Antoine Fuqua, Scott Greenberg, Kat Samick Executive producers: Annie Marter, Christian Mercuri, Jonathan Oakes, Justin Bursch, Gustav Moller, Lina Flint, Nic Pizzolatto, Eric Greenfeld Cinematography: Maz Makhani Production designer: Peter Wenham Costume designer: Daniel Orlandi Editor: Jason Ballantine Music: Marcelo Zarvos Casting directors: Lindsay Graham, Mary Vernieu Sales: Endeavor Content

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Language, descriptions of violence in tense remake.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Telling the truth can set you free from the psycho

Joe Baylor is short-tempered but means well, thoug

The staff at the police dispatch center is diverse

Wildfires rage across LA in televised images. Othe

A caller says he was robbed in his car by a "volup

Lots of use of "f--k." Also: "s--t," "ass," "a--ho

LAPD, CHP, Airbnb, The Los Angeles Times.

There's discussion of a narcotics bust by police.

Parents need to know that tense thriller The Guilty is a remake of Danish film Den Skyldige and stars Jake Gyllenhaal. It has descriptions and suggestions of violence that could upset some viewers. The violence is never seen, except televised images of wildfires and the main…

Positive Messages

Telling the truth can set you free from the psychological stress of lying. Sometimes people make mistakes even if their intentions are good. Sometimes people's intentions aren't good.

Positive Role Models

Joe Baylor is short-tempered but means well, though he's about to go on trial for a crime. He wants to maintain a relationship with his ex and his young daughter, and he tries his best to help a woman he believes to be in distress. He apologizes when he snaps at colleagues, who are relatively patient and forgiving of him.

Diverse Representations

The staff at the police dispatch center is diverse. The office has a gender-neutral bathroom. Baylor is a White police officer facing a trial (we don't learn for what until close to the end), a situation that echoes current events in the US.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Wildfires rage across LA in televised images. Other violence is heard or described on the phone. Baylor takes emergency 911 calls that include drug overdoses, bike accidents, and robberies. He's straight with callers, telling them when they're at fault for their own situations and whether they'll go to jail ("you should be f--king executed," he tells one). A woman calls and seems to have been abducted by her estranged husband. She says he has a knife. Baylor counsels the woman, who says she's scared she's going to die, to react violently in her own self interest. When police go to her children's home, the voice of the young girl and the bloody scene they encounter sounds harrowing on the other end of the phone line. A woman seems to threaten suicide. A man admits to having killed another man. Two people both suffer from psychological problems. Baylor struggles to breathe and vomits.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A caller says he was robbed in his car by a "voluptuous" Hispanic woman whom Baylor then refers to as a prostitute. The caller is worried his wife will find out.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Lots of use of "f--k." Also: "s--t," "ass," "a--hole," "damn," "goddamn it," "hell," "Christ," "God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

LAPD, CHP, Airbnb, The Los Angeles Times .

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

There's discussion of a narcotics bust by police. Baylor asks his ex-partner if he's been drinking, and the man admits to having had one or two drinks. Baylor relies on an inhaler for breathing issues. A woman needs medications.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that tense thriller The Guilty is a remake of Danish film Den Skyldige and stars Jake Gyllenhaal . It has descriptions and suggestions of violence that could upset some viewers. The violence is never seen, except televised images of wildfires and the main character's mild outbursts or moments of illness. Instead, people describe their fears and what they're experiencing in situations including drug overdoses, an apparent abduction at knife point and fleeing on the freeway, a robbery by a prostitute, kids left abandoned, a small child found injured, a possible suicide attempt, a murder, and more. A person's desperate description of his inability to get help to pay for expensive but necessary medical treatment is quite sad. There's some diversity in the cast, and the setting of an office has a gender-neutral bathroom. Lots of use of "f--k." Also: "s--t," "ass," "a--hole," "damn," "goddamn it," "hell," "Christ," "God." There's discussion of a narcotics bust by police. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 2 parent reviews

Tense, upsetting remake has tons of language and disturbing content

What's the story.

In THE GUILTY, detective Joe Baylor ( Jake Gyllenhaal ) awaits a trial that, if all goes well, could get him back on the streets on duty instead of his current placement in a 911 call dispatch center. About to end his shift the night before his court appearance, Baylor receives a call from a woman (voiced by Riley Keough ) who appears to have been abducted. He slowly draws out the details of the woman's circumstances and gets overly invested in seeing the situation to its end that night. His dogged persistence could put the outcome of his trial in jeopardy.

Is It Any Good?

Dark in subject matter as well as aesthetics, Antoine Fuqua's remake of Danish film Den Skyldige transfers the tense thriller to Los Angeles. But LA is seen only in televised images and maps in The Guilty , which is set entirely in a police dispatch office. Instead, the city of extremes lies just outside the window. Like the violence communicated via 911 calls, it's suggested and overheard rather than seen, which lets the viewer imagine it and adds to the tension. The film cleverly employs light, sound, and the single moody office setting to render the state of mind of Jake Gyllenhaal's Joe Baylor. The tightly-wound detective clearly has anger issues, and he also seems to be suffering from severe stress, all of which Gyllenhaal -- the camera's solitary focus for 90 minutes -- sweats and flexes through. The film depends on his ability to sustain this tension convincingly.

Meanwhile, the enigma behind his character's circumstances parallels the mystery he's unraveling in 911 calls from an apparently abducted woman. Nothing is as it seems. Fuqua puts viewers at unease from the start, opening on Joe struggling for breath in a cold, white bathroom. Joe returns to his post in a blue-black dispatch office lit by computer screens, desk lamps, and dim light filtering in through half-closed blinds. On a wall of television screens, images of wildfires blaze across LA. Only when Joe seems to find a semblance of peace do the glowing fires appear extinguished. Most of the time, he can barely contain his angst. Ambient noises come and go, replaced by muffled sounds, echoing, or ringing, as if we are inside Joe's head. The voices behind the calls are played by well-known actors like Ethan Hawke , Riley Keough , and Peter Sarsgaard , but none are seen on screen. The snippets of their panicked calls are meant to disquiet. They weave a devastating story that broaches contemporary topics like police violence and social inequities, and one which only clears up -- like the skies over Los Angeles -- at the end of the movie.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how details about Joe Baylor are revealed throughout The Guilty . What do you know about him at the end of the film that we didn't know before, and how does this change your perception of his behavior and actions?

How would this film have changed if scenes had also been filmed on location, for example, in the van on the freeway or in the children's apartment?

Can you think of other movies you've seen where the focus is so intensely centered on one character? Did you find the actor believable throughout this film? Why or why not?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : October 1, 2021
• Cast : Jake Gyllenhaal , Riley Keough , Peter Sarsgaard
• Director : Antoine Fuqua
• Inclusion Information : Black directors, Female actors
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Thriller
• Run time : 90 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : Language throughout.
• Last updated : February 17, 2023

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If You Like ABC's '9-1-1,' Watch This Tense Jake Gyllenhaal Netflix Thriller

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The Big Picture

• Jake Gyllenhaal shines in intense roles, from Donnie Darko to Prisoners , with The Guilty showcasing a raw, gripping performance.
• The Guilty places viewers in the shoes of LAPD officer Joe Baylor, creating an intimate, suspenseful emergency response scenario.
• Director Antoine Fuqua's resilience shines in the behind-the-scenes challenges faced during the making of The Guilty , resulting in a heart-pounding experience.

Jake Gyllenhaal has provided some of the most intense, character-driven performances as a leading man in a range of cinematic works . One of his first lead roles, the haunting sci-fi thriller Donnie Darko , sees Gyllenhaal as a troubled sleep-walking teenager. In the gritty crime drama Nightcrawler , he plays a petty thief who becomes a stringer photojournalist selling explicit violent footage to a local television station. For Prisoners, he transformed into an emotionally complex Detective Loki, doubling as Hugh Jackman 's moral compass as they chase down child killers. Gyllenhaal is consistently seeking out projects — usually with dark subject matter — that push him as an actor. We'll see him next in Apple's TV remake of Presumed Innocent as a man on trial for the murder of his co-worker who he was having an affair with. But before he enters the courtroom, let's look back on a recent lead performance that may not be as well-known as the aforementioned roles: 911 call center emergency responder Joe Baylor in the 2021 Netflix thriller The Guilty .

With a surge in the popularity of police procedurals, The Guilty joins the fray with its captivating high-stakes emergency scenario and complex characters. In The Guilty , Jake Gyllenhaal is an ordinary person in an extraordinary situation, forcing him to make split-second decisions that can mean the difference between life and death. Directed by Antoine Fuqua , The Guilty is a film that leaves you on the edge of your seat. A remake of the 2018 Danish film of the same name, it is an American take on the Nordic story that showcases Gyllenhaal's raw, gripping performance. If you enjoy procedural thrillers like ABC's 9-1-1 , The Guilty offers similar heart-pounding suspense and unexpected twists but in a more confined, suspenseful setting.

What Is 'The Guilty' About?

Love that rush of car chases and explosions in a good thriller ? The Guilty isn't that kind of flick. Instead, it is a character-driven story that takes place entirely in a 911 call center. The narrative follows Joe Baylor, a disgraced LAPD officer demoted to answering emergency calls. The film opens with a distressed-looking Joe nervously washing his hands in the bathroom, and answering mundane calls. At one point, a journalist calls to ask about a particular incident, indicating that Joe has recently been caught up in a case gone wrong.

Joe's 911 call center has stringent rules like the prohibition of private phone calls, much to Joe's chagrin. He craves to work in the field but is trapped in his punishment. Joe's world explodes when he receives a frantic call from a terrified woman, Emily (voiced by Riley Keough ).​​ Through Emily's panicked whispers, Joe gathers chilling clues — she's been abducted but can't reveal her location or the identity of her captor. What begins as a literal typical call of duty becomes an emotional investment for Joe as he connects with Emily. Relying on his intuition and limited information from Emily, Joe races against time to save her. But things aren't what they seem to be.

The Guilty is told almost entirely from Joe's point of view — both in narrative and by the use of cinematography and sound, where the camera is glued to Joe as almost the only subject in frame , save for a few cutaway shots and the voices of the other characters in the film are heard through Joe's phone speakers. By immersing the audience in Joe's point of view, The Guilty invites the audience into his frustration, fear, and determination. Gyllenhaal's Joe is the driver of the film, and the Road House star takes The Guilty on a visceral, thrilling journey.

How Does 'The Guilty' Compare With '9-1-1'?

Like the popular police procedural show 9-1-1 , The Guilty shows the chaos and urgency of emergency response situations. Beyond the call centers and the ticking clock against saving lives, both 9-1-1 and The Guilty explore their characters' personal battles outside of work, albeit markedly differently. 9-1-1 lays a broader canvas, featuring multiple storylines and a variety of characters, each bringing their own personal dramas and professional challenges to the show. 9-1-1 's focus is on the firefighters , paramedics, and police officers on the scene. It balances heart-pounding rescue operations with moments of levity, often showcasing funny or irrelevant calls that provide a respite from the intensity. The Guilty, on the other hand, narrows its focus to a single character and one emergency call, creating a more intimate and intense viewing experience. Both shows, however, delve into the psychological load that the experiences of their characters have on them, whether at work or in their personal lives.

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In 9-1-1 , this psychological load is presented as a shared emotional burden among characters within each episode. In the show's pilot, for instance, we see a 911 call dispatcher Abby ( Connie Britton ) struggling to balance her work duties with caring for her mother who has dementia. The experience of this emotional burden on the viewer is also shared with other characters. For instance, in the same episode, Buck ( Oliver Stark ) struggles with the discipline required for his job. In The Guilty , on the other hand, Joe is isolated, bearing the full weight of the crisis on his shoulders. We follow him as he navigates his personal challenges with family and work. This narrowed focus allows The Guilty explore the depths of Joe's character more than 9-1-1 's broader narrative arcs .

Jake Gyllenhaal Provides a Masterful Performance in 'The Guilty'

Jake Gyllenhaal's performances have been masterful, and in his growing filmography , The Guilty provides yet another win. From Joe Johnston ’s 1999 biographical drama October Sky which put Gyllenhaal on the map, where he plays a "rocket boy" choosing to become an aeronautical engineer against the grain of his father's coal miner occupation, Jake Gyllenhaal has come a long way. Since then, when he received critical acclaim as a 17-year-old actor, Gyllenhaal seems to have only gotten better. In The Guilty , the film's unique structure places the entire story on his shoulders, and he rises to the challenge with a portrayal that is both raw and riveting. With a single-walled setting and without action sequences and dramatic scenery changes, Gyllenhaal relies on his facial expressions, voice, and body language to convey the escalating tension and emotional stakes. Every flicker of his eyes, every clench of his jaw, and every strained whisper adds layers to Joe Baylor's character, drawing the audience deeper into his world.

'The Guilty' Proves Antoine Fuqua's Resilience as a Director

The production of The Guilty is a testament to the resilience and creativity of filmmakers working under unprecedented conditions. Filmed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic , the movie's production faced numerous challenges, from strict health protocols to the need for social distancing on set. These constraints influenced both the film's narrative style and its technical execution. One of the most notable aspects of the production was the limited cast and crew allowed on set, which forced the team to adopt innovative approaches to traditional filmmaking processes.

The decision to film in a single location — the 911 call center — was not only a nod to the original Danish film but also a practical solution to the pandemic's constraints. This confined setting intensified the film's claustrophobic atmosphere, making Joe's sense of isolation and urgency even more palpable. Behind the scenes, the making of The Guilty was far from straightforward. According to an AP News interview with the film's star Jake Gyllenhaal and director Antoine Fuqua, the acclaimed director was mandated to quarantine after being in contact with someone who had COVID-19. With just days until filming was set to begin, they came up with an out-of-the-box solution. They decided that Fuqua would direct the movie from a van parked down the street from the set. Communicating via phone or FaceTime during the entire shoot, The Guilty marked a significant departure from their previous collaboration on the boxing drama Southpaw , where the duo were in close contact every day. “I looked up a van that’s used for photography. I wondered if there was a way to use technology to our advantage... Literally, I did the whole thing from this van," said Fuqua. “There were days when Jake would climb up on a ladder and talk to me over a wall,” added Fuqua.

The Guilty is more than just a thrilling ride. It's a testament to the power of a single, well-crafted performance. Gyllenhaal delivers a masterclass in conveying urgency, fear, and determination through minimal physical movement. While the film has received some criticism for not quite capturing the magic of the original Danish film, it remains a gripping and suspenseful journey. Antoine Fuqua's The Guilty is a heart-pounding experience that will keep you guessing until the very end. Just be prepared to hold your breath – it's a wild ride.

The Guilty is available for streaming on Netflix in the US.

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