Movie Review: 'The Guilty' Starring Jake Gyllenhaal

The Guilty is an American remake of a 2018 Danish thriller that was based very loosely on real events. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, the American version of The Guilty is one of the fastest paced and most exciting movies of 2021. This can be attributed to Fuqua, a talented action director whose style translates shockingly well to a drama about one man and a phone bank. Of course, The Guilty would not work as well as it does without star Jake Gyllenhaal, an actor with more than enough presence and charisma to carry a movie all by himself.

The story of The Guilty centers on Joe Baylor, a suspended LAPD Detective, busted down to 911 Operator following an incident that will be fully revealed as the story progresses. Joe’s life is in a spiral, not only is he facing a court hearing the following day, his wife has left him and is refusing to take his calls. This means that Joe cannot see or speak to his daughter, an agonizing predicament as Joe knows it’s his fault he’s in this situation.

After a few relatively mild calls, Joe takes a very strange call indeed. A woman calls 911 and is acting strange, she’s calling Joe sweetie and not answering any direct questions. When Joe goes to hang up he’s caught by something she says. It leads Joe to a question, has this woman, identified as Emily (voice of Riley Keough), been kidnapped? She indicates in coded phrasing, as if she were answering questions from her daughter, yes, she has been kidnapped.

This begins a lengthy series of calls and a search that Joe can only follow from his 911 terminal. Joe calls the California Highway Patrol and they begin to search for the vehicle. Another call from Emily and Joe learns that she has two children who’ve been left home alone. Another call and Joe learns what kind of vehicle that she’s in. Eventually we learn that the name of Emily’s kidnapper is Henry, voiced over the phone by Peter Sarsgard.

You would not think that a movie that is just Jake Gyllenhaal on the phone would be this involving, exciting or emotional but it most certainly is. The situation is so smartly constructed and Fuqua employs such an energetic style that it’s hard not to become swept up in the story. Somehow just imagining Emily’s predicament becomes more exciting over the phone than it might be in person.

In many ways I was reminded of those great YouTube true crime videos where presenters introduce a true crime story and weave in actual 911 calls. The Guilty is like being first-person in a true crime story. I could not stop putting myself into Joe’s shoes, thinking of what I would do, trying to anticipate what might happen next. This story is unpredictable however, which makes it even more riveting once everything involved is fully revealed.

Jake Gyllenhaal is phenomenal in The Guilty. His manner, his frantic eyes, the detail of him having asthma in a time when wildfires are everywhere surrounding the Los Angeles of this movie universe. As an asthma sufferer myself, I know how stress can contribute to difficulty breathing, Jake’s coughing and sweating are all too familiar as is his nervously fingering his asthma inhaler, a clever visual detail that might induce some asthma sufferers to have their own inhaler in hand for the next big twist.

Personal interests aside, you don’t need to have asthma to become deeply involved in The Guilty. Gyllenhaal’s desperate, impatient and terrified performance is incredible no matter how much you identify with it. The twists and turns of this story are riveting, one in particular took my breath away. I know some will say that the film cheats a little but I bought it. Riley Keough’s vocal performance over the phone reeled me in and Gyllenhaal’s commitment to the premise had me fully immersed in The Guilty to the point where they could have done just about anything and I was going to gasp.

The Guilty is out now on Netflix and it’s a must see.