The Guilty

I watched the Netflix film first, and then thanks to the reviews on that one, discovered this Danish original and watched that too.

The Netflix film is a taught and effective thriller, with a great central performance from Jake Gyllenhaal. It's mostly word-for-word the same as the Danish version. And it's free if you have Netflix!

The Danish version is £2.99 on Amazon. It's less stylish and less melodramatic, but much more believable and affecting. I cared more for all the characters, and despite knowing exactly how it was going to play out, I was hooked throughout. At times I couldn't look away.

The Netflix film adds an unneccesary personal arc, some wildfire-related melodrama, and a set more like a James Bond MI5 office than a 911 (or 112) call centre - all of which reduced the impact and made the film less engaging.

If you're definitely not going to watch the Danish version, the Netflix one is a good bet. If you're ok to watch either, choose this original - it's a lot more suspensful and completely captivating. (Ideally, unlike me, don't watch both!)

Jakob Cedergren plays a police officer assigned to a 911 call center who receives a call from a woman who has been kidnapped. The call center is the set for the entire course of the film. The tension is Hitchcock like with enough twists and turns to keep the viewers attention. At 85 minutes the movie moves quickly and the conclusion is a bit disappointing but I recommend The Guilty.

Considering all the action is taking place in one room and happens via phone call in Danish language, it's incredible how it keeps you on the edge of your seat with strong character development, great acting and intriguing plot twists

"The Guilty" is one of those one-man show movies that revolve around a single character in a single location working through some sort of dramatic situation. In this film, the character is a cop who's been put on 911 call center duty while he awaits trial for misconduct on the job. The way he handles the emergency that falls into his lap and the way he goes about making decisions, most of them bad ones, tells us a lot about him and how he probably ended up on trial in the first place.

Movies like this are always going to feel to a certain extent like gimmicks and will have to deal with the distractions that come with that (How will it maintain dramatic tension? How will it remain visually engaging?) This one uses a plot twist that serves to both throw the audience for a loop and reveal much about our main character, namely that he makes a whole heap of assumptions when dealing with a crisis scenario, not the best attribute for a police officer.

A slick, effective little thriller that's well worth your time.

Grade: A-

With an amazing actor in Jacob Cedergren, the director and crew of this film has pulled off what appears to be one of the best low-budget movies ever made.

The movie is immensely exciting, and deserves to be world famous. Everything about this movie is perfect, and shows that you don't need deep hollywood pockets to make an amazing movie.

Extra points for having a great trailer without spoilers, seems like this is a hard thing to do for most producers nowadays...