The Guilty (2018)
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The Guilty Movie Review
The Guilty is a 2018 Danish thriller film directed by Gustav Moller and starring Jakob Cedergren. It’s such an intense, beautifully constructed movie.
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“Asger, you’re a good man“
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It follows an alarm dispatcher and former police officer Asger who gets a phone call from a kidnapped woman and it is up to him to solve that dire situation. This is a very twisty movie so spoilers are ahead. I absolutely loved the film’s twist which caught me by surprise. Yes, I definitely had realized that Michael wasn’t the killer as he was too sloppy, but still I had no idea that the woman killed the baby because she was insane and coming from a mental institution.
As is the case with every great twist out there, this one is awesome as every little piece perfectly falls together into a terrific puzzle. Everything then made sense and the twist was highly believable instead of implausible. The movie is thus highly unpredictable and thrilling throughout while I found myself being on the edge of my seat throughout the whole 85 minutes.
The main reason why The Guilty is such an amazing thriller lies in its approach. Yes, just like ‘Searching’ did previously in this year, this film also makes use of modern technology, this time around a phone and an alarm dispatcher position. The entire flick happens basically on the phone and I personally found it much more riveting than if it happened the usual way.
Because this approach led to a much more mysterious movie as its center mysterious case remained unnerving throughout and all the more powerful because we as the audience kept guessing things and not seeing them. Rarely do movies employ the audience’s imagination this powerfully as a storytelling tool and this one does it beautifully.
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Asger Holm is one fantastic thriller protagonist. I absolutely loved the development that went into him as his personal backstory where he had killed a murderous man prior to this story and is awaiting trial is phenomenally utilized into his last conversation with the mentally unstable woman and thus the two stories coalesce stupendously into each other.
But above all else his dilemmas in the film are very relatable to me personally and I found the depth in many of those scenes evident. He wouldn’t have been such a great characters had it not been for Jakob Cedergren whose performance here is simply superb. His every facial expression is terrific as are his introspective moments. Most of the movie happens through his face and there you can see all the major emotions and dilemmas that happen here.
I also really liked his mysterious conversations with Rashid as well as of course his dialogues with both Michael and Iben. Both of those are instantly memorable and their story is extremely dark, but also surprisingly emotional and that mixture of human darkness and still present humanity is what makes this movie click for me.
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Gustav Moller’s direction is very good for a debut, but otherwise lacking a bigger polish to it. The same goes for the cinematography which could have been a bit more inspired, but I still did love those close-ups of Asger’s face. I found the first couple of scenes a bit unnecessary as the call that he gets only happens after them, but everything afterwards is simply amazing. The pacing is brilliant as is the editing and the sound design is perfect. It’s simply one of the year’s finest foreign films that was shamefully snubbed for an Oscar.
Thanks to stellar editing, superb dialogue and a particularly strong protagonist phenomenally played by Jacob Cedergren, The Guilty is one hell of a thriller that remains intense, unnerving and riveting throughout its very short runtime. It’s a perfectly constructed film in both its backstory and its main story fueled by such a classic, creepy twist that makes sense and makes the film quite unpredictable. It’s an extremely dark, but still very human look into the alarm dispatcher position with a fantastic all-phone call approach that led to a more mysterious and effective thriller which makes perfect use of the idea that what’s not seen is much scarier than what’s shown. The Guilty is consequently one of the best thrillers of the decade.
