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An impressive debut feature, showcasing one character in one location yet having more tense and edge of your seat scenes than most thrillers today. The Guilty sits us with Asger, a police officer who has been demoted to desk work for an unexplained incident. He receives a phone call from a woman in distress, masking her call to make her kidnapper believe she is calling her child.
The Guilty succeeds for numerous reasons, but I'd place two specifics reasons on its shoulders; Jakob Cedergren, the lead here who simply reacts to dialogue in his ear and the voice actors of the callers on the other end. If either of those two elements didn't work, The Guilty could have easily been a forgettable thriller in the vein of Halle Berry's The Call. Luckily that is not the case as Cedergren delivers a tense performance for a man sitting in a chair for most of the film.
The reason for his demotion is explained later on in the film, but we get a sense that something isn't right with him from the start. He's very judgmental of people calling in for help. The first two calls he receives, one is of a man scared he is overdosing, the other was a man robbed from a prostitute. In both instances, our "protagonist" brushes these calls off and claims it's their own fault for getting in those situations. It's not until he receives the eerie phone call from the woman does he react in a helpful manner, even then most of the decisions he makes are questionable. He even disregards a phone call from an injured person afterwards because he wants to stay on the case of the kidnapped woman. We don't have to like this man, we just have to be on his side in this situation and hope he's good enough at his job that he can have this woman survive. Things get complicated when he takes measures into his own hands and tries to solve the situation without the help of the local police.
The Guilty might be a Danish film, but the subject matter pertaining to police and abuse of power is extremely relevant to western culture now. It also dives into how people perceive the world around them. The Guilty takes a few clever twists when our "protagonist" inserts himself into the crime. He simply cannot sit by and let others do their jobs, he has to solve it himself. This could potentially cause more harm than good and we just have to sit there and listen on the phone to any possible outcome. So the viewer feels helpless as we listen and yell lat him for making inappropriate decisions. Without seeing the event, only listening, we are all ears and you can hear a pin drop. We never leave the room, but we get a detailed picture of what is happening out there due to those terrific voice performances.
I for one, could never do this job. I can't even fathom being on the other end of the line if someone is dying, or giving the wrong advice and the result is a death. That is a job that you take home with you.
The Guilty
"Does the person know you called us?"
An impressive debut feature, showcasing one character in one location yet having more tense and edge of your seat scenes than most thrillers today. The Guilty sits us with Asger, a police officer who has been demoted to desk work for an unexplained incident. He receives a phone call from a woman in distress, masking her call to make her kidnapper believe she is calling her child.
The Guilty succeeds for numerous reasons, but I'd place two specifics reasons on its shoulders; Jakob Cedergren, the lead here who simply reacts to dialogue in his ear and the voice actors of the callers on the other end. If either of those two elements didn't work, The Guilty could have easily been a forgettable thriller in the vein of Halle Berry's The Call. Luckily that is not the case as Cedergren delivers a tense performance for a man sitting in a chair for most of the film.
The reason for his demotion is explained later on in the film, but we get a sense that something isn't right with him from the start. He's very judgmental of people calling in for help. The first two calls he receives, one is of a man scared he is overdosing, the other was a man robbed from a prostitute. In both instances, our "protagonist" brushes these calls off and claims it's their own fault for getting in those situations. It's not until he receives the eerie phone call from the woman does he react in a helpful manner, even then most of the decisions he makes are questionable. He even disregards a phone call from an injured person afterwards because he wants to stay on the case of the kidnapped woman. We don't have to like this man, we just have to be on his side in this situation and hope he's good enough at his job that he can have this woman survive. Things get complicated when he takes measures into his own hands and tries to solve the situation without the help of the local police.
The Guilty might be a Danish film, but the subject matter pertaining to police and abuse of power is extremely relevant to western culture now. It also dives into how people perceive the world around them. The Guilty takes a few clever twists when our "protagonist" inserts himself into the crime. He simply cannot sit by and let others do their jobs, he has to solve it himself. This could potentially cause more harm than good and we just have to sit there and listen on the phone to any possible outcome. So the viewer feels helpless as we listen and yell lat him for making inappropriate decisions. Without seeing the event, only listening, we are all ears and you can hear a pin drop. We never leave the room, but we get a detailed picture of what is happening out there due to those terrific voice performances.
I for one, could never do this job. I can't even fathom being on the other end of the line if someone is dying, or giving the wrong advice and the result is a death. That is a job that you take home with you.