Review: Jake Gyllenhaal's one-man show "The Guilty"
Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 8:00PM by Matt St Clair
Despite being a proponent of Bong Joon-ho's advice to overcome the "one-inch barrier" of subtitles, I confess that I never got around to seeing the popular Danish film The Guilty (2018) which became an Oscar finalist for Best International Feature in its year. As a result of this blind spot, none of my thoughts on the new English-language remake will pertain to how it measures up to the original. Instead, let's talk about what a tense one man show this is.
Although Jake Gyllenhaal has actors surrounding him, both in-person and through vocal performances on the telephone, The Guilty is laser focused on his character, 911 dispatcher Joe Baylor. Joe is on the phone trying to save a woman named Emily (voiced by a skillfully elusive Riley Keough) who’s being kidnapped by her ex-husband...
As Joe attempts to track her changing location, he deals with his troubled relationship with his ex-wife (voiced by Gillian Zenser) and those involved with his eventual court hearing regarding an event that caused him to be demoted from his police officer position to the call center he currently works in.
If you've been following Gyllenhaal's career it absolutely won't surprise you to hear that Jake Gyllenhaal gives a performance of immense commitment once again. Through just phone conversations, Gyllenhaal is able to reveal multiple facets of his messy anti-hero. When Joe first logs on for the day, he arrogantly brushes off the concerns of a man calling for an ambulance, showing just how badly he hates being at this particular desk doing this job. However, the unease Joe feels as he tries staying on the line with Emily to save her life shows an attempt at atoning for his past wrongs.
The tension of Joe’s relentless pursuit is only heightened by the close-ups of Gyllenhaal’s sweating face along with the shots of him squeezing his stress ball andbreathing through his inhaler. Thanks to both smart camera work from DP Maz Makhani, and editing from Jason Ballantine, The Guilty feels like a 90-minute panic attack. While that's distressing, it's certainly doing a fine job of placing the audience in the restless shoes of the protagonist.
Because Joe is a white cop with the warrior mindset of “Kick the door in first, ask questions later,” and has one of his colleagues do exactly that at one point, it highlights the script’s undercooked commentary on American policing. Given the change in countries they should have rethought this. In our current socio-political climate, The Guilty will likely beg the question of why viewers should be engaged in the redemption of a cop who has people do the door-kicking even when he himself can’t.
If anything, Jake Gyllenhaal elevates the muddled screenplay with his fervent, intricate performance. It's arguably his best turn since Nightcrawler. He’s the beating heart of this flawed yet pulsating one-location thrill ride. B+
The Guilty is currently streaming on Netflix.
Gillian Zenser, Jake Gyllenhaal, Netflix, Reviews, Riley Keough, The Guilty, remakes, streaming
Reader Comments (8)
In movies, we tend to make an assumption that the protagonist is good at his job. I like movies where we explore a character who is not skilled in his chosen profession.
Joe Baylor has instincts his fellow officers don’t trust. If we are paying attention, we shouldn’t either. A dispatcher must work in a high stress environment, but Baylor, on suspension from active duty and reassigned to a desk, is overwhelmed. We can see it in his demeanor, the desperation in his grip on his inhaler, and his bark of his lines. As a tense situation unravels, both Baylor and the viewer become aware that he should not be a police officer. He should never have become a police officer.
Jake Gyllenhaal has been doing a great deal of stage work. That seems to have improved his concentration. He employs his gifts here to be riveting when one would assume 90 minutes of a talking head would be dull. This is a solid thriller with a strong central performance.
I thought he was riveting in this and those final call scenes in the bathroom were really effective,shame he'll be overlooked yet again.
I thought he was riveting in this and those final call scenes in the bathroom were really effective,shame he'll be overlooked yet again.
Another great performance from him.
Cleary inferior. Jake is bad but I love the haircut. Must cost like 200 dollars.
It's kind of amazing he's only ever had the one, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN Oscar nod. He should have three or four by now.
I thought this movie was pretty terrible, terrible enough that I couldn't really even evaluate the performance at the center. The mid-film twist was laughable. I also agree with Finbar McBride's comment, but I was really uncomfortable with the extent to which the film wanted us to sympathize with this very bad cop.
I love Melissa McCarthy, but I similarly felt that The Starling was so bad that I couldn't really separate her performance from its awfulness. Yes, they have their 4-5 prestige Oscar contenders every year and a handful of great docs, but by and large, Netflix releases so much dreck.
I haven't seen the original, but I didn't care for this one. Why was everybody so bad at their job? There's literally a missing woman and maybe even a dead child and everyone's just like "ugh, stop bothering me."