We spend a lot of time these days considering who calls in to 9-1-1; perhaps we should spend a little time thinking about who is on the other end of the line. It’s easy to ignore; we tend to think of police personnel as all the same. Some of us might even be shocked to learn that police officers are individuals with personal thoughts and personal agendas and maybe, just maybe, a personal sense of morality that exceeds regulations. Nah. Don’t be silly. They’re all probably like those clowns on “Reno 911!,” right?
One of the big problems with Hollywood film is the constant selling of the product. This means that if you have a movie about Halle Berry, LAPD emergency phone responder, she’s not just gonna sit behind a desk all film, like, maybe a real life 9-1-1 operator handling a crisis. No, eventually she’s going to take an active role in the film away from her cubicle and headset, whether it makes sense or not. For ten zillion dollars, Halle Berry ain’t no desk actor, knwwhatI’msayin’?
Denmark police officer Asger Holm (Jakob Cedergren), spends the entire film at a desk answering the “112” emergency number (that’s Danish for “911”). I’m not sure we ever see him from the waist down. Now, I warn you, and this is not for the faint of heart, and I apologize for the spoiler here, but in a moment of defiance and hyper-action, at some point, Asger switches desks! Please try to contain yourselves. Yes, I am making fun of this film. Yes, I loved it all the same. I see the decision to film the thriller entirely from the perspective of the operator as a clever one. It’s very Blair Witch in the “letting your imagination drive the action” rather than spoiling it with actual footage. Believe me, if you can, this film plays better exactly because you don’t have a visual of what’s going on.
Early on, Asger gets a phone call from a desperate woman. She’s in a car headed for ?? Her small children have been left at home. Who’s the abductor? Where are they going? How far would an officer need to go to see this thing through to resolution? Suppose you need to send somebody to break into an address without probable cause. Suppose you’re on suspension, or finding that desk duty is disciplinary action and doing things like circumventing the chain of command to help out an abducted woman will get you in deeper. And all this is done from a desk in real time.
What The Guilty may lack in characters (there’s basically just Asger and the people on the other end of his phone), sets, and traditional action, it more than makes up for in thrills and psychological battles. The format is simple yet undeniable: we are Asger. We see what he sees. We hear what he hears. We draw the same conclusions from what we know. This is the ultimate ability of a film to empathize with the protagonist. And The Guilty is cleverer than it betrays; there’s not a cut-and-dried case here, but something much more complex. The Guilty makes a perfect fall social justice double with The Hate U Give. I cannot tell you why exactly because I would have to kill you and thus become, The Guilty.
♪The Dane Police
Are working on the switchboard
The Dane Police
Located that hatchback Ford
The Dane Police
Have tracked the wrong SUV
Oh no♫
Rated R, 85 Minutes
Director: Gustav Möller
Writer: Gustav Möller (screenplay), Emil Nygaard Albertsen
Genre: Phoning it in, literally
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Defenders of the police
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Action junkies
♪ Parody Inspired by “The Dream Police”
