Very few films that came out since March 2020 were more obviously filmed during a global pandemic than "The Guilty."
Released Friday via Netflix, the film was directed by Antoine Fuqua — his second release in less than four months after June's Paramount+ sci-fi thriller "Infinite" — and stars Jake Gyllenhaal in a story that takes place entirely in the confines of a 911 dispatch center. "The Guilty" also happens to be a remake of the 2018 Danish thriller of the same name.
Credit must be given to both Fuqua and Gyllenhaal for taking what could have been quite the slog and turning it into a tense cat-and-mouse game that only works because of their combined commitment to making the most out of pandemic-induced limits on the type of sequences they could safely stage.
There are multiple baffling plot points throughout "The Guilty" and its premise is stretched about as far as it can go without completely breaking, but a strong central performance and generally brisk pace result in a satisfying enough watch.
Gyllenhaal plays Joe Baylor, a demoted Los Angeles police officer stuck answering phones at an emergency call center. Viewers are quickly left to wonder what he did to land himself in this unfamiliar and unwanted position. It also becomes quickly apparent that Joe has a fractured relationship with the mother of his young daughter.
What seems like a boring night manning the phones takes a turn after Joe takes a call from a woman who claims to have been kidnapped. Joe spends the rest of the evening trying to figure out what's actually going on and grows increasingly frustrated with the bureaucratic red tape he encounters and how unsatisfied he is with the overall state of his life.
While there are a few other actors physically in the room with Gyllenhaal, most of "The Guilty" involves the camera locking on him as he talks to someone on the phone who's either directly involved in this kidnapping or who could hopefully help save the potential victim. It would be tough to come up with too many movies that aren't animated or feature a computer-generated creation that employ this much voice-acting.
All the action happens in the same office setting with only phone calls and occasional glimpses of the outside world on video screens breaking up the scenic repetition. Nobody could be blamed if they grow a bit tired of this shtick, but at least the film moves swiftly enough for the most part that moments of tedium are few and far between.
Audiences' ability to connect with this story will almost entirely hinge on their enjoyment of Gyllenhaal, who is reuniting with Fuqua for the first time since the two made the 2015 boxing flick "Southpaw" together. Fuqua clearly trusts Gyllenhaal to carry just about every second of the film's 90-minute run time. His camera generally doesn't do much beyond framing Gyllenhaal as he goes from one confrontation to another.
While Gyllenhaal is reliably solid in the role, it would be understandable if you found his character to be a tough hang. Joe Baylor is a gruff guy with no ability to separate his personal life from his work. That's vaguely reasonable given his impending court date but it causes headaches when he becomes so fixated on making sure this woman is safe that he begins to demand too much of friends and former law-enforcement colleagues.
That said, it's still difficult to take your eyes off Gyllenhaal, who's liable to explode with rage or break down in tears at any second. He's supported in the call center by a cast that includes fellow 911 operator Manny (Adrian Martinez) and Sgt. Denise Wade (Christina Vidal) and via the phone by on-point vocal performances from the likes of Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough, Peter Sarsgaard, Eli Goree, Da'Vine Joy Randolph and more.
You might be left with a lot of questions by the time all is said and done, mainly how much trouble Joe would realistically be in if he pulled even a fraction of the insubordinate stunts he did to ensure no harm would come to that woman or her family. At least the ever-present sense of momentum and how relatively short it is make for an experience that doesn't leave too much time to linger on questions like that.
When it comes to a film like "The Guilty" that's built around such a specific gimmick, the best things going for it are Fuqua's steady hand, Gyllenhaal's unpredictability and the fact it's right there on Netflix to check out at your leisure. Approach it like a one-man show with no intermission that you can view from home, sit back and watch Gyllenhaal cook.
———
'THE GUILTY'
2.5 stars (out of 4)
MPAA rating: R (for strong language)
Running time: 1:30
Where to watch: Now streaming on Netflix
