Hello everyone, it is I, your Feisty Indian Aunty who watched yet another crime thriller on Netflix. I put on The Guilty with some reservation as I wasn’t sure how this one man show would hold my attention for 90 minutes. I now know that I shouldn’t have worried because Jake Gyllenhaal is amazing. Who knew he would be this great at holding my attention using nothing more than his beautiful face and an office chair.
In the movie, Gyllenhaal plays Joe Baylor, a police officer working the night shift at an emergency call centre. It isn’t any ordinary night though. He’s awaiting the verdict on a hearing of a shooting in which he killed a 19-year-old suspect. Southern California is on fire and blanketing the city in smoke. And Joe’s getting increasingly frustrated with having to deal one irritating call after another.
His night takes a sudden turn when he receives a call from a woman named Emily. At first, Joe thinks that Emily is drunk, but soon realizes she’s pretending to be talking to her daughter because a man has taken her hostage. After leading her through a series of yes or no questions, Joe concludes that she is in a very bad way and becomes obsessed with trying to save her.
For me to say any more would be to ruin this movie. All you need to know is that the entire movie plays out from this one perspective. All we see and hear is from Joe’s point of view. And trust me when I say that it is absolutely thrilling.
No one in this movie phones it in. (Pun intended.) There are such great voice performances from Riley Keough, Paul Dano, Ethan Hawke, Eli Goree, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Peter Sarsgaard, that I barely noticed that they weren’t on screen. The director, Antoine Fuqua (Training Day), manages to extract real emotion, and also tremendous tension, from a mere phone call. All of it brilliantly reflected off Joe’s own baggage and burdens. (There is good reason why this movie is called The Guilty.)
All that said, the reason this movie is so engaging is because of Jake Gyllenhaal and Jake Gyllenhaal alone. There is a madness in his eyes. Not insanity. But a wild yearning for salvation. I was completely invested in his character because he was.
The Guilty left me largely in tears. Joe’s story, his emotional trauma, the consequences of his anger and rage, was very difficult to watch.
Joe isn’t perfect. He is, in fact, broken in many ways. His demeanor and behaviour is reflective of a man who has been deeply traumatized. He is unable to cope with that stress and is quick to anger, curt to his colleagues, and just not very nice to be around.
Yet, despite his emotional trauma, you cannot help but admire the tenacity with which he carries out his job. He believes in what he does. He is completely dedicated to the cause. And he never lets his own troubles get in the way of helping those in need. Maybe it’s true what one of the characters says in this movie: “broken people save broken people.” Maybe that’s the only way they know how to heal.
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