The Guilty (2021)

This week we’re up to the letter “J” in the A-to-Z Part Deux Challenge! For the letter “J” we have Jake Gyllenhaal. Yes, I know he’s primarily an actor. And yes, I know he’s even the main actor in this week’s movie. But he also happens to have a p.g.a. “Produced by” credit on that same movie…The Guilty (2021).

Title: The Guilty

Director: Antoine Fuqua

Released: October 1, 2021

Runtime: 1 hour 30 minutes

Available to stream on: Netflix

Joe Baylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) is an LAPD officer assigned to the overnight shift at the 911 call center. No, it’s not his normal assignment. He’s working the call center while awaiting a court date for an on-duty incident.

What’s the incident? Well, we aren’t quite sure. The good news for Joe though, the court date is tomorrow. All he has to do is get through one more shift and it’ll all be behind him.

During his shift he receives a call from an Emily Lighton (Riley Keough). Emily sounds terrified and is talking as though she’s speaking to a child. Joe catches on and advises her to keep acting like she’s talking to her child while he asks her yes or no questions.

Joe is able to determine that Emily has been abducted by the father of her children in a white van and that the children are not with her. That’s it, no more details. Not enough to be able to track down the van. Joe calls Emily’s home number and a little girl named Abby answers. Abby reveals that she is six years and nine months, she’s home with her brother, and that daddy took mommy.

Continuing to talk with Abby, Joe is able to get the father’s, Henry Fisher (Peter Sarsgaard), cell number. Using that, he’s able to track down the license plate number of the white van. Joe calls Henry, who says very little, and hangs up when Joe begins asking questions accusing Henry of taking Emily.

Miraculously, Emily is able to get back on the line with Joe. Joe instructs her to put her seatbelt on and yank the hand brake as hard as she can. You can hear the screeching of tires and then the line goes dead.

Will the police and paramedics be able to get to Emily? What about her children?

But more importantly, what about Joe’s court date?

In a movie where the whole premise is “guy is working at a call center and is very determined”, you need to have a lead who can put the movie on his/her back. This is exactly what we got here with Jake Gyllenhaal. His subtle changes in tone along with his facial expressions keep you hanging on every word, which is good considering all but maybe 2 minutes don’t have Jake’s face and/or voice in it.

I was not aware of the original, a Dutch film from 2018 of the same name. So, while I can’t speak to how true to the original it is, I can speak to how it stands as its own thing. While I enjoyed the movie overall, my biggest gripe is with Joe’s story.

An officer’s pending court date over an incident that landed him where he is for the entirety of the film, that deserves a little more attention. Yes, we ultimately find out what happened. Yes, we see how the weight of the incident weighs on Joe. However, it is hard to believe that the whole Emily situation was enough for him to have his own come-to-Jesus moment and decide to change his approach to his court appearance.

That gripe aside, The Guilty (2021) is a fun ninety minutes. There’s tension throughout, twists that you might see coming but may not expect, and Jake Gyllenhaal shines. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s definitely worth at least one viewing.

Well, there you have it. Another letter in the books. What did you think of The Guilty (2021)? Tell me in the comments below or by reaching out on social media!

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Keep an eye out on Threads and Instagram on Wednesday for the reveal of who we’ll be covering next Sunday for the letter “K” and which movie we’ll be reviewing.