{"id":23563,"date":"2021-09-29T11:18:35","date_gmt":"2021-09-29T18:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=23563"},"modified":"2021-09-29T11:18:35","modified_gmt":"2021-09-29T18:18:35","slug":"the-guilty-is-well-performed-but-falls-short-of-the-danish-original","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=23563","title":{"rendered":"THE GUILTY is Well-Performed, But Falls Short of the Danish Original"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/24_0007_B-merged.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15337\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>This film will be available to stream on Netflix as of October\n1<sup>st<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2018, a claustrophobic little Danish thriller called <em>The\nGuilty<\/em> made a big splash with movie reviewers, earning numerous award\nnominations (including one from the critic circle this reviewer belongs to) and\neven taking home a few prizes. It hasn\u2019t taken long for the English-language\nremake rights to be sold, resulting in a new take on the story. This version is\nwell-performed and is generally faithful to the source material. But while those\nwho aren\u2019t familiar with the original may find themselves engaged in the\nproceedings, anyone who has seen the previous film will find some aspects\nworthy of nitpicking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Guilty-02.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23565\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Joe Bayler (Jake Gyllenhaal) is an exhausted Los Angeles cop in over his head. He is under investigation for an on-the-job shooting and his marriage is crumbling. While awaiting a disciplinary hearing, Joe is assigned shifts at a 911 call center. It\u2019s a remarkable busy night, with a large portion of the county dealing with rampaging wildfires. Things get even more tense when Baylor receives a call from a woman named Emily Lighton (voiced by Riley Keough), who is on the road traveling with another figure. Through a series of carefully worded questions and comments, the woman implies that she has been forcibly taken. Baylor tries his best to coach Emily through the situation, while making private calls on the side to find out more about the woman and implore other departments to help find the vehicle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The original movie was very contained, never leaving the\ncall center and focusing its attention entirely on the policeman. This remake\ntakes the same approach, keeping Baylor within the call center and using nothing\nbut audio to convey increasing friction and drama. The technique works better\nthan one might expect, with the conversations and terminology inspiring viewers\nto imagine what is occurring. The movie also depends on its main character and\nGyllenhaal is engaging throughout, even if the officer he\u2019s playing isn\u2019t\nnecessarily likable. The zippy pace and actor hold our curiosity to see how he deals\nwith the stress. And a positive new added element comes from the raging forest\nfires, adding a bit of uncertainty as officers on the radio describe being\nunable to see clearly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Guilty-03.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23566\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But as mentioned previously, it\u2019s incredibly difficult not\nto make comparisons to the original feature, especially given that it only\narrived a few years ago. While this update does the basics well enough, there\nare a couple of alterations that seem strange and unnecessary. In the original,\nthe officer was stuffy and closed off emotionally, creating a deeper air of\nmystery about his dark past. It appears as though Baylor is acts out angrily in\na more obvious fashion and the lack of subtlety dissipates some of the\npressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This adaptation also takes one particularly dark story element\nand diminishes it with a quick, added comment late in the film. Additionally, the\nscreenplay seems determined to tie-up every plot thread and leave no questions\nunanswered. While using more exposition to clarify the lead\u2019s fate certainly emphasizes\nthe themes and intended message, it does mute some of the story\u2019s grayer and\nvaguer aspects, leaving less to discuss or ruminate on after the credits roll. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Guilty-01.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23567\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Taking the movie on its own terms, <em>The Guilty<\/em> is a\nsimple, decent, fast-paced thriller that does maintain interest and benefit greatly\nfrom a compelling star. And one can certainly understand how a studio, needing\nproduct that can be shot inexpensively in one locale, would rush ahead and remake\na relatively new film. It just may leave those who have seen the well-regarded original\nfeeling that this reworking isn\u2019t quite as effective or, well, an entirely necessary\nexperience. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This film will be available to stream on Netflix as of October 1st. In 2018, a claustrophobic little Danish thriller called The Guilty made a big splash with movie reviewers, earning numerous award nominations (including one from the critic circle this reviewer belongs to) and even taking home a few prizes. It hasn\u2019t taken long [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[206,3770,4910,6251,10179,17060,20915,20916,20917,20918,22825],"class_list":["post-23563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-206","tag-call-center","tag-crime","tag-drama","tag-jake-gyllenhaal","tag-riley-keough","tag-the-guilty","tag-the-guilty-film-review","tag-the-guilty-movie-review","tag-the-guilty-review","tag-thriller"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23563\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}