The Guilty (2021 film)

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The Guilty
Text showcasing several emergency calls in red font overlap the face of a man. The words "Listen" and "Carefully" are highlighted in white letters. In the bottom left corner is "The Guilty" in large red letters.
Official release poster
Directed by Antoine Fuqua
Produced by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Screenplay by Nic Pizzolatto
Based on
Den skyldige
by
  • Gustav Möller
  • Emil Nygaard Albertsen
Starring <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Music by Marcelo Zarvos
Cinematography Maz Makhani
Edited by Jason Ballantine
Production
company
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Distributed by Netflix
Release dates
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  • September 11, 2021 (2021-09-11) (TIFF)
  • September 24, 2021 (2021-09-24) (United States)
Running time
 90 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English

The Guilty is a 2021 American crime thriller film directed and produced by Antoine Fuqua, from a screenplay by Nic Pizzolatto. A remake of the 2018 Danish film of the same name, the film stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Christina Vidal, with the voices of Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough, Eli Goree, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Paul Dano, and Peter Sarsgaard.

The Guilty had its world premiere at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2021.[2] The film was released in a limited release on September 24, 2021, then digitally on Netflix on October 1. It received positive reviews from critics, with Gyllenhaal's performance being praised, but it is felt that the remake was inferior to the original film.

Plot

Troubled LAPD officer Joe Baylor is working the night shift at a 911 call center while he awaits a court hearing for an incident that occurred on duty eight months prior. He answers a call from a woman named Emily Lighton who reveals she has been abducted. Joe learns that she and her abductor are traveling in a white van, but Emily is forced to hang up before she can provide more details. Joe relays the information to the California Highway Patrol but they are unable to locate the van without a license plate number.

Joe calls Emily's home phone and speaks with her six-year-old daughter Abby, who tells Joe that her mom left the house with her dad, Henry Fisher. After getting Henry's cell phone number from Abby, Joe is able to retrieve the van's plate number, which he relays to the CHP. Joe also learns that Henry has a record of assault. Joe then calls Sergeant Miller about sending a patrol unit to Emily's home to do welfare check on Abby and her baby brother, Oliver, as well as requests a patrol unit to investigate Henry's apartment for clues. Miller agrees to the welfare check on the kids, but refuses to send anyone to Henry's without a warrant. Miller also reminds Joe that he's in enough trouble of his own right now and suggests to Joe that he stay in his own lane to avoid further departmental scrutiny. Afterwards, Joe calls Henry and demands to know where he is taking Emily. They speak briefly, but Henry quickly hangs up after Joe starts interrogating him and asking lots of questions in an accusatory tone. Joe then calls another law enforcement buddy and his former partner, Rick who is just off-duty. Joe asks him to go Henry's house to poke around on the down low. Rick agrees to go to Henry's, but also expresses concern about Joe's upcoming hearing at which he is also set to provide testimony.

Joe receives a panicked call from Abby when two officers arrive at her home; he instructs her to let them in. The officers notice blood on Abby and, upon searching the property, find Oliver in the bedroom either gravely injured or dead. Joe calls Henry and starts accusing him of killing his son. Henry eventually just hangs up on Joe angrily in disbelief about the accusations. On the line again with Emily, Joe convinces her to put on her seatbelt prior to attempting to crash the van since Henry is not wearing his. Joe then tells Emily to pull the handbrake of the van really hard to stop it and catch Henry off guard. Emily complies with Joe's instructions, but her efforts fail to actually crash the vehicle in the end.

Meanwhile, Rick breaks into Henry's apartment and finds a number of unopened mail pieces and some documents showing that Emily had recently been a patient in a locked psychiatric treatment facility in San Bernardino. Eventually, back on the phone again with Emily, she tearfully conveys to Joe that she thinks she's going to die and does not want to be locked up again. Joe manages to calm Emily down while talking about her favorite foods and activities with her kids. Eventually Emily goes on to tell Joe that she believed Oliver had "snakes in his stomach" and that she "took them out." While talking to Joe, Emily realizes that Henry has stopped the van. When Henry tries to remove Emily from the back, presumably to have her readmitted back to the psychiatric hospital, she hits Henry with a brick (at Joe's urging before he realized that Emily was the one who hurt baby Oliver). Emily takes off and runs away, leaving Henry alone and knocked out.

Joe then calls back a groggy and slightly disoriented Henry who is coming to after being hit. Henry explains he was taking Emily back to the facility. He furthers tells Joe that she had been off her medication for a number of weeks because they could not afford them. Henry tearfully tells Joe that he thinks he should not have left Emily which he believes triggered the current psychotic episode during which Emily unintentionally hurt Oliver (by cutting out the "snakes" in his stomach). Henry tells Joe that he does not trust the police and the criminal justice system due to his own criminal legal troubles and because of the many failed attempts by various government agencies to "help" his clearly mentally ill wife. Henry tells Joe that Emily has no idea what she's actually done and that finding out might completely break her or make her do something to hurt herself.

Eventually, Emily calls Joe back from a freeway overpass, implying that she is preparing to die by suicide. Joe directs the CHP to her location while attempting to talk her down; he tries to distract her by revealing that he killed a 19-year-old while on duty because he was angry with him for hurting someone and "because I could." Joe tells Emily that Abby needs her and that he promised Abby she would come home. As officers arrive, Emily says she is "gonna go be with Oliver", and the line goes dead. Joe immediately thinks she has jumped. After repeated failed attempts to call Emily back, he finally just calls the CHP dispatcher who conveys that Emily did not in fact jump and that she came down safely from the overpass as officers arrived. Shortly after that call, he receives a message from his supervisor that baby Oliver is alive and in the ICU at the hospital recovering from his injuries.

In the restroom, an overcome, nauseated, distraught Joe calls Rick and asks him to recant his previous statement about the incident. He asks Rick to tell the truth at the hearing, even if it means he will spend years in prison. Joe then calls the Los Angeles Times apparently to inform a reporter that he will plead guilty to a charge of manslaughter, as it fades to black. In the closing credits scene, viewers hear news reports detailing that officer Joe Baylor has indeed pled guilty to manslaughter in an officer-related shooting.

Cast

Voices

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Production

In December 2018, it was announced Jake Gyllenhaal had acquired rights to the 2018 Danish thriller film The Guilty, and would star in and produce a remake under his Nine Stories Productions banner, alongside Bold Films.[3] In September 2020, it was announced Antoine Fuqua would direct and produce the film, from a screenplay by Nic Pizzolatto with uncredited revisions from Gyllenhaal.[4][5] Later that month, Netflix acquired worldwide rights to the film for $30 million.[6] In November 2020, Ethan Hawke, Peter Sarsgaard, Riley Keough, Paul Dano, Byron Bowers, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, David Castaneda, Christina Vidal, Adrian Martinez, Bill Burr, Beau Knapp and Edi Patterson joined the cast of the film.[7]

Principal photography began in Los Angeles in November 2020,[8][9] during the COVID-19 pandemic, and lasted for 11 days. Three days before production was set to begin, a person in contact with director Antoine Fuqua tested positive for COVID-19. Fuqua tested negative subsequently, so the production was still on schedule. He directed the entire film from a van called Colorspace[10] with screens that had access to the cameras, maintaining contact with the cast and the crew.[11]

Release

The Guilty had its world premiere at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2021.[12] It received a limited release on September 24, 2021, prior to streaming on Netflix on October 1, 2021.[13]

The film was streamed in 69 million households over the first month of its release, and was the top-watched film on the platform in 91 countries.[14]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 74% based on 190 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Guilty is another Americanized remake overshadowed by the original, but its premise is still sturdy enough to support a tense, well-acted thriller."[15] Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 63 out of 100 based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[16]

References

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External links

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