‘The Guilty’ review: Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a 911 operator in a Netflix remake of the Danish film
Remaking a 2018 Danish film, “The Responsible” is a taut, remarkably spare thriller that casts Gyllenhaal as a 911 dispatcher, taking a sequence of disparate calls — and one notably important one involving an imperiled girl — whereas clearly scuffling with a separate private disaster.
What’s occurring? About all we all know is that Gyllenhaal’s Joe Baylor is a avenue cop who has been briefly assigned to this desk work, and {that a} pesky reporter retains calling. Past that, nothing is essentially because it appears, because the story unfolds whereas a sequence of wildfires mild up the Los Angeles horizon, including to a way of stress throughout the name middle and distinguishing the setting.
Shot through the top of the pandemic, the whole film takes place in that single location. With minimal help from the actors enjoying his coworkers and the voices on the road (Peter Sarsgaard, Riley Keough and Ethan Hawke amongst them), Gyllenhaal impressively holds the display for roughly 90 minutes, typically with the digital camera positioned in claustrophobic close-ups.
The irony is that Netflix intends to present the film a short theatrical window earlier than it streams, when this could be about as best an at-home, second-screen-viewing car as you are apt to search out.
The film would not end in addition to it may need, notably when it comes to fleshing out Joe’s story, and it may have been shorter — akin to a “Black Mirror” episode — with out shedding a lot.
Nonetheless, such quibbles do not diminish the depth of the sooner sequences or Gyllenhaal’s efficiency. Due to that, “The Responsible” manages to take Joe — and the viewers sharing this confined house with him — on a reasonably frenetic experience into the darkness, with out ever venturing out into the sunshine of day.
“The Responsible” premieres in choose US theaters on Sept. 24 and Oct. 1 on Netflix.