‘The Guilty’ review — A kidnapping unfolds in real time in Demark’s Oscar entry

The Guilty is a somewhat predictable, but taut single-location thriller of a kidnapping case unfolding in real time.

The Guilty, Denmark’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, is a taut thriller that plays out like an episode of Law & Order: SVU. Told in real time, the film follows Asger (Jakob Cedergren), a police officer demoted to 911 dispatcher while he awaits trial, as he tries to save a kidnapped woman named Iben. The film never leaves Asger’s face as he makes various calls—to other police officer’s, the victim’s family members, his partner—in an attempt to track down and save Iben. The entire story, which is at points predictable, unfolds completely over the phone. We never see any characters involved except for Asger. However, first-time director Gustav Möller is able to overcome the cookie cutter plot to reveal some hard truths about law enforcement. 

What The Guilty presupposes is that the police are flawed, make mistakes, and, at their worst, do more harm than good—even when they have the best intentions, which is not a guarantee. While Asger begins as an officer with some clear baggage—it’s easy to see that he is resentful that he has to work as a dispatcher—he is slowly transformed through the 88-minutes that we follow him. 

The end of his shift is filled with the standard—muggings, tripped out teens—until he receives a call from a woman named Iben (voiced by Jessica Dinnage). She speaks to Asger as though she’s talking to her child. He quickly deduces that she has been taken by someone and is trying to seek out help, but can’t since he’s right next to her while she’s on the phone. Asger’s instincts automatically kick in as he guides her through getting more information without tipping off her kidnapper. 

Soon, she is disconnected, and he must piece together who she is, where she’s being taken, and who has taken her. However, his colleagues—other dispatchers and patrol units—aren’t as interested. At one point, when he calls to have units look out for the suspect’s van another dispatcher responds, “but why?” In another scene, he asks his former partner to go to a suspects house and look for something that could give them a hint to where the suspect is taking Iben, to which his partner rebukes, “she will be dead by the time I’m done.”

It’s that resistance that Asger faces while he tries to save Iben. The general lack of care in the police department. However, he has a selfish reason for wanting to be more involved at the beginning of the mystery—he misses being a cop. However, instead of doing the groundwork himself, he has to do it over the phone and rely on other people to do it for him. By only hearing the action going on the tension is ratcheted up. In painfully long takes we wait for some piece of information or the fate of someone to be revealed. It’s that kind of tension that keeps the movie compelling, even when you can call the story’s shots. 

Single-location movies are hard to pull off, but when they’re done well—Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation, for example—they can be really effective. The Guilty has its moments, particularly during Asger’s calls with Iben and her kids, who eventually fold into the story. However, the handling of its themes, particularly of morality, is sloppy and introduced too late into the story to make any real impact in the end. However, even if the plot is something we’ve seen in countless police procedurals, The Guilty has some really interesting choices that make it a solid debut for Möller. 

The Guilty is available to buy or rent on Amazon