'The Guilty' Film Review

Guilty is what I was to think Netflix’s new crime thriller “The Guilty” would be clichéd and predictable. Despite being an avid opponent of intense thrillers, this new Netflix film had me glued to my screen.

The film centers around 911 dispatcher Joe Baylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) who receives a dispatch call from a woman, Emily Lighton (Riley Keough). Lighton has been abducted by her ex-husband and the pair left behind their two kids at Lighton’s home. Baylor works to piece together what has happened and save Lighton and her children from her ex-husband all from the dispatch center.

Eventually, Lighton’s children are rescued, and we discover that her son has been stabbed. We then learn that Lighton suffers from mental illness and was the one that caused the injuries to her son. It is revealed that Lighton’s ex-husband had been trying to bring her to a mental hospital all along to help her. In the end, we learn that Baylor is an on-leave police officer who has killed someone and is set to face trial the following day. Because of Lighton’s story, Baylor decides to plead guilty to the crime and own up to what he has done.

Admittedly, I am typically hesitant to a Gyllenhaal movie because I find him very bland. This was the first role I saw him in that he was definitely made for. Baylor’s character is troubled, unfriendly and erratic and Gyllenhaal embodies these traits impeccably. We see Baylor’s personal turmoil with his separated wife and daughter, which points the audience to understand that something catastrophic has happened, yet we don’t learn what until the end of the movie. Baylor is captivating because it is clear that he is unhappy in his job, but the call from Lighton sparks interest in him. You can see a light start to turn on inside him very subtly, which makes you intrigued into what he is going to do. This is when I began connecting with Baylor, even though his unclear personal history makes him distant at times. By the end of the film, I began to empathize with Baylor.

The production of the film was an integral aspect of its intrigue. The fact that the entire story is told from the dispatch center, with only Baylor, and no other visual scenes, is brilliantly done because it allows the viewer to connect with and understand him more. The use of imagery throughout the film is what makes it so successful. One thing that stood out was the use of the red light by the dispatch desk. This is used to signify different scenes when Baylor is on the phone. The use of this light as a significant in trying to progress the story in a visual way besides seeing Baylor’s character. This is one of the ways that setting the film in one location throughout works. Credit is due to the production team, specifically the director, for this creative decision because it moves the story forward and draws the viewer in more. Particularly because the moments where the red light was shown were not quick, it is clear the director wanted the viewer to take in the significance of the light coming on. This helped differentiate when Baylor was focusing on the job, because the red light would be on and he would have to take a call, and when he was focused on his personal tribulations because the light would be off.

Another aspect of the imagery that was successful was the sounds. Telling the story through the use of phone calls was a daunting task that could have failed to captivate the film’s audience. The sounds of the phone calls portrayed the emotions of the people behind them, connecting the viewers to characters who they had never seen. I became devoted to the sound of every breath they took and the sound they made. It was surprising how invested I felt in the characters after spending a lot of time hearing their voices. This was once again a successful creative decision on the part of production and reason why the film was so captivating.

It feels a bit strange to be giving such a high rating to a film that was only in one location for its duration, but this film deserves it. Anticipating it to be a classic “save the woman and children” thriller, I had low expectations for this film. By the time it was over, my jaw was tired from hitting the floor so many times. It was unpredictable and captivating, and easily one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. For its incalculable yet entrancing nature, this film definitely deserves an A.