TIFF 2021: The Guilty Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

In this day and age, Hollywood remakes are a fact of life but they are still a fickle thing. Foreign films are a common target of the remake machine as non-English languages and subtitles are points of contention with some audiences. Meanwhile, remakes of films from just 2018 are a different thing altogether. That being said, cue The Guilty, a remake of the Danish film of the same name. Boasting a simple premise and setting, it has nowhere to hide in terms of execution and that will ultimately be where the film lives or dies. In the end, the film rests solely on the shoulders of its star, Jake Gyllenhaal, who definitely delivers a strong performance in a film that couldn’t quite live up to his level. Running at a brisk 90 minutes, the film is an intense watch that loses sight of itself as it arguably gets overwhelmed by a ridiculous wave of melodrama.

The Guilty follows Joe Baylor (Gyllenhaal), a demoted police officer working at a 911 call center. While it was certainly not where he wanted to be, he made the best of it but he still had his eye on getting back on patrol. Perhaps looking to relive some that glory or to look for an excuse to leave the call center, Baylor got caught up with one particular phone call involving a potentially kidnapped woman. As the film went on, some of the circumstances leading to his demotion came to light as the case of the kidnapped woman evolved into something much more. One essentially led to another as the source of Baylor’s intentions and motivations weren’t always necessarily clear and also where he’d eventually take it. That character arc was what kept the film at least somewhat interesting in spite of the increasingly ridiculous story that consistently worked against it.

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone that the best part of The Guilty was of course Gyllenhaal’s committed performance as Baylor. Due to premise and the limited setting, the film was basically him for better or worse. His charm and presence at least kept the film somewhat engaging but he could only do so much in terms of getting audiences to care about the character. The film also offers a fair share of great voice performances across of Baylor’s many calls.

In the end, The Guilty may have its heart in the right place and may leave some viewers on the edge of their seats but its execution left much to be desired. At least it doesn’t wear out its welcome.

 still courtesy of Netflix

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.