The Guilty(2018)- Review
The Guilty is a Danish crime thriller featuring Asger Holm (Jakob Cedergren), a Copenhagen police officer awaiting a hearing for shooting a man while on duty. Currently, he is assigned to answer emergency calls. The day prior to his hearing Asger receives a call from a woman who identifies herself as Iben Østergård (Jessica Dinnage). Not getting any cries for help or claiming an emergency, he doesn’t make too much of the call and is about to hang up. But as he continued with the conversation with Iben he realizes that she is under some kind of distress and discreetly reveals to him she has been abducted and is in a white van. The movie throughout continuous with build-ups in this storyline; Asger using his skills and doing all he can for rescuing the woman who is counting on him.
Firstly, the creators need to be lauded to have the imagination and the creativity to deliver the way the movie did with the extremely bold script showcasing & limiting all the scenes in one location and for almost all of the scenes having just one on-screen actor. Simply working with the idea of one location & one character would not have been enough and without the great story, the concept of the movie would have been catastrophic. Jakob Cedergren does a stellar job considering he is the only actor on screen and the movie majorly rests on his shoulders. Lastly, the post-production should also be appreciated keeping in mind the difficulty and challenge required for correctly portraying the plight, eagerness, and all other emotions that need to be conveyed via a phone call.
There aren’t much or any real shortages in the movie, but seeing the quite peculiar nature of the delivery of the story, it can be called something of an acquired taste. Many viewers can be unimpressed and be outright bored with the stationary location and a lone actor. Continuing, a case can be made that the music could have been done better helping create more anticipation & excitement for the viewer.
Nevertheless, there can be no case made for you avoiding the movie altogether. In all honesty, my initial thoughts too weren’t peachy thinking of the concept, but all that disappeared after simply five minutes in the movie. The movie surely deserves the reception it received with a screening at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival & a nomination at the 91st Academy Awards for the Best Foreign Language Film.
Acting- 8.5
Casting- 9
Cinematography- 7.5
Dialogue- 8
Directing- 8
Editing & Effects- 8
Sound & Music- 7.5
Story- 9
Storytelling- 9.5
Rating- 8.5
Available on: Amazon Prime