Directed by Gustav Möller
Written by Gustav Möller & Emil Nygaard Albertsen
Cast: Jakob Cedergren, Jessica Dinnage, Omar Shargawi, Johan Olsen, Katinka Evers-Jahnsen, Jacob Lohmann
Soundtrack: Carl Coleman & Caspar Hesselager
I’m not going to sit here and pretend like I know anything about Danish cinema, because I don’t. All I know about The Guilty is that the trailer looked super intriguing, and apparently it’s the debut feature of writer/director Gustav Möller.
Also, The Guilty is the 300th movie I’m reviewing since May of 2014, and I’m happy to say that it’s at least different and interesting, if not entirely cinematic.
The basic concept of the film is that a police officer on involuntary 9-1-1 duty (or 1-1-2 as it is over there) gets a call from a woman who seems to have been abducted, and he attempts to do everything in his power (without leaving the call center) to remedy the situation, the entire movie playing out in essentially real-time and never leaving that location.
It’s a set of creative constraints I very much appreciate (sort of feels like a Larry Cohen project without the satire), and the film does a remarkable job within those walls, especially based on the strength of the script; and, I was surprised to find that, even though it’s a tense thriller, there are some scattered moments of levity (if only for the audience) that somehow don’t feel out of place.
Much credit obviously goes to writer/director Möller and lead actor Jakob Cedergren for carrying the brunt of the creative burden, but I also have to give kudos to the handful of actors who go unseen and are only heard over the phone. It’s a thankless job but they all give an exceptional amount of characterization under the circumstances.
As I said before, it doesn’t make for the most cinematic fare, so I can’t bring myself to give it a full theatrical recommendation, but if you’re in the mood to check out something off the beaten path, definitely go support it.
Rating: ★★★½ (out of five)