The Guilty Review - Intense, An Edge of the Seat Psychological Thriller
- Details
- Category: Indies, Docs, Foreign Film
- Published on Saturday, 20 October 2018 16:59
- Written by Janet Walker
The Guilty, from Magnolia Pictures and Nordisk Film, presents a highly suspenseful, psychological drama, focusing on one suspended on desk duty police officer answering the emergency calls and the one call that becomes the race against time.
Directed and co-written by Gustav Moller, The Guilty stars Jakob Cedergren, Morten Thunbo, Maria Gersby, Anders Brink Madsen, with Jessica Dinnage, Omar Shargawi, Johan Olsen, Jacob Lohmann, Katinka Evers-Jahnsen, Jeanette Lindbaek, Simon Bennebjerb, Morton Suurballe in voice roles and Laura Bro voices the Journalist.
The Guilty opens with Asger Holm, a ranked Danish police officer working the emergency call center, in Denmark, on the second shift, with the evening wearing on, we wait as each phone call, the unknowing suspense builds as the audience is aware whatever will happen will begin with an emergency call.
As the calls come in the apprehension grow. The phone rings, a fight over drugs. The phone rings, a sobbing man robbed by a prostitute. The phone rings and a women whispers into the phone, "Help me."
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It is obvious the woman has been crying and as Holms begins to ask her questions that she can answer in simple yes or no responses. Within minutes we find she has been abducted, she is in the back of a white van, she is not hurt although she has been crying.
As Holmes tries to secure help for her, we find out more about his story, he is on suspended on desk duty, his court case is in the morning and has one of the other emergency operators say, then we can put all this behind us and you can be back on the streets.
With each contact with the woman, Iben voiced by Jessica Dinnage, we learn more, her two children, Oliver and Mathilde, are home alone, her ex-husband has taken her, we see Holm barely able to manage the rage as he tracks down everything on her ex-husband.
Calling in his partner who is also his star witness he asks him to break into he home of the ex-husband, Michael, voiced by Johan Olsen.
Finally we hear Iben talking about her children, who is still abducted, as the cops have arrived at her home and are met by her daughter, as Holms' partner breaks into the home of the ex-husband. The pieces fall into place twisting into the unbelievable.
Suddenly Holm realizes what he is hearing wasn't the conclusion he assessed the situation to be and found himself reliving a pattern of failed instant determinations.
The Guilty was a surprise! It is heart-pounding, suspenseful, with shocking twists, a little humor and even a solid, timely and poignant, back story.
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The film is designed to allow the audience the opportunity to "play" along guessing what could be the tragedy as we determine by the third call, the film's set is the one room, the one man and eventually, the one call.
The Guilty could be a theatre production, as it focus is the one man, an emergency call from a woman, his back story, which we are not given any details and the shocking, pulsating, beat that builds into a climatic shocking conclusion.
Denmark's official entry to the Best Foreign Film category for the 91st OSCARS, The Guilty, surprises with development twists, and heightened suspense as the officer tries to determine the guilty party and stop the situation from spiraling out of control.
The Audience Winner at Sundance Film Festival, The Guilty is a thrilling race against time crime drama. In Danish with English subtitles, The Guilty is playing in select theatre. This is a foreign language film that must be seen.
