The Guilty *** (2021, Jake Gyllenhaal) – Classic Movie Review 13,266

The tense 2021 American crime thriller film The Guilty is produced and directed by Antoine Fuqua, and stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a cop demoted to a 911 centre who gets an emergency call from a kidnapped woman.

The tense 2021 American crime thriller film The Guilty is produced and directed by Antoine Fuqua, and stars Jake Gyllenhaal.

The Guilty is an engrossing and effective if however noticeably less good Americanised remake of the 2018 Danish film The Guilty [Den skyldige].

It is taut and stretched tightly, with convincing atmosphere and an excellent central turn by ideally cast Jake Gyllenhaal. But neither the film nor his performance quite has quite the edge or the wired tension of the original, though the gripping story still holds strong.

Gyllenhaal plays troubled LAPD officer Joe Baylor demoted to working the night shift at a 911 call centre while awaiting a court hearing over an incident on duty eight months earlier. He answers a call from Emily Lighton (voice of Riley Keough), who says she has been abducted.

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 screenplay by Nic Pizzolatto is based on the screenplay for The Guilty [Den skyldige] by Gustav Möller and Emil Nygaard Albertsen.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,266

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