A high-profile Netflix Original film, The Guilty, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, is streaming on Netflix from October 1, 2021. Six years after the boxing drama Southpaw, Gyllenhaal and director Antoine Fuqua reunited for this Netflix thriller.

In an interview with Netflix, Antoine Fuqua said, “Obviously, to work with Jake again was a big plus. I love the guy, and the subject matter was as perfect as he said it would be for me.”

The Guilty is a ‘Nordic noir‘ (Nordic noir is a crime fiction genre, written from a police point of view and usually set in Nordic countries) film based on a Danish crime thriller, Den Skyldige. Co-written and directed by Gustav Möller, Den Skyldige (or The Guilty in English) is a critically acclaimed film. It gripped audiences when it first premiered back in 2018.

Synopsis

The official synopsis of the film by Netflix reads, “A troubled police detective demoted to 911 operator duty scrambles to save a distressed caller during a harrowing day of revelations and reckonings.”

The story takes place over the course of a single busy morning in a 911 dispatch center. Gyllenhaal’s character Joe Baylor is a demoted officer who is now a call operator. He answers phone calls like any dispatch operative and informs the concerned department. Many of the calls are not even emergencies. Things take turns when he receives a call from a terrified caller Emily, a woman who is abducted and trying to seek help. Baylor tries to get hints about her whereabouts. Baylor must break all rules on the record to reach her before she gets killed. However, he soon discovers that nothing is as it seems. There are multiple twists involved, and he must face the truth to find the way out.

Reviews

The pandemic-shot film is running on the edge thriller. It is more character-centric and follows emotional turmoil along with Baylor’s intellectual conflict. He fights demons within and the situation outside. Jake’s acting adds to the seriousness of the plot. The close-ups bring out tension and the gravity of pursuit. Besides all the favorable reasons to watch this 90 minutes movie, The Guilty is a character study. More of a one-man show. For the love of Jake Gyllenhaal and crime thrillers, you can definitely watch the film.

Making of The Guilty

The entire shoot took only 11 days and three on-screen cast members, including Gyllenhaal, in the film’s making. Because of the unique premise, many dramatic scenes take place with Gyllenhaal on the phone, thus not requiring many outdoor locations.

While talking about the research he did for the film, Antoine Fuqua said, “…what I needed to do was go to a 911 call center, so I went to one in West Valley and the captain there Dave Storaker he helped us a lot. He walked us through the call center and introduced us to some of the people, and gave us some insights on what they go through daily on a personal level, and a lot of technical things, obviously, we needed to learn about the headsets and how it works.”

He describes a human connection attached to the dispatch center as the people there are just not voices. They have to live with someone else’s trauma every day, listen to people calling obviously, on the worst day of their lives.

Much of the shooting took place at Covid’s peak time. The challenges faced during the recording of the sound and dialogues were unique to the entire team. There’s not a lot of cuts in between each call, certain sections were recorded as a play, with voices in Gyllenhaal’s ear. This resulted in a raw and intense performance by Jake.

The Guilty Cast

The Guilty features the charming Jake Gyllenhaal and talented Ethan Hawke playing lead roles. The other cast includes Riley Keough, Peter Sarsgaard, Christina Vidal Mitchell, Paul Dano, Eli Goree, DaVine Joy Randolph, and David Castarieda.

Fan Reactions

The trailer launch itself fixated fans’ eyes on October 1, 2021. For the fans of Jake Gyllenhaal, a crime thriller is no less than a blessing to see this man in action.

However, a section of fans was upset by the remake and advocated for the original Danish film The Guilty (Den Skyldige).

Still, overall, the film happens to deliver what it promises. Here are some of the reactions curated for you –

Let us know how excited are you to watch the film? If you have already watched it, share your reviews in the comments.