If it’s anything that we at That Nerd Show can get excited over its BIG movies. Movies jam packed with action, big name celebrities, gorgeous cinematography, and special effects. After all, “go big or go home” has always been the best way to forget our worries for just a couple of hours and get lost in a story. On the other hand, what about the movies that can be described as simple, or even “minimalist”? Are they, in contrast, too basic for all but the extreme cinephile to enjoy? Admittedly, movies like these have a lot stacked up against them. With far fewer characters, sets, and action, they have to be much more precise about what elements they do bring to the table. The acting, writing, and editing better shine, because there’s nothing to distract the audience if it doesn’t.
The Guilty is the latest such example of a minimalist movie. A remake of a 2018 Dutch film by the same title, The Guilty was directed by Antoine Fuqua. Demoted police officer Joe Baylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) is working what he hopes to be his last night as an emergency call dispatch. Everything seemed like a routine night until he receives a disturbing call from a kidnapped woman. Joe then scrambles to work against the clock to use every resource available to him to save her. All while never leaving the call center.
When I say this movie is minimalistic, what I mean is The Guilty is not only a “One Night” kind of of movie (that is, a film whose story takes place over the course of a day or less) but it’s also a “One Setting” (a film that takes place almost entirely in the same place.) For other movies like these, think Clerks, or 12 Angry Men. Unlike the mentioned examples, The Guilty barely even has other characters on screen besides Joe, the majority of his interactions being only heard over the phone.
I realize an average film goer may be skeptical of this concept. After all, how interesting can it be to watch a guy talk over the phone for an hour and a half? Personally, I was not only extremely invested, but about the most stressed I’ve been in years watching a movie. I don’t know if I’m being dramatic, but the last time I was this clenched after watching a film was Gravity, and that’s mostly due to my fear of falling.
Being somewhat familiar with director Fuqua’s works gave me another reason to approach this film skeptically. While he’s definitely capable of making some great ones (Training Day, for example) he occasionally makes some big misses. Confession time: I was supposed to have given you guys a review for Infinite, the other film he’s done this year. It just…wasn’t even inspiring enough for me to write about how bad it was. (If you’re curious, I would have given it a 3/10, had I published it.) Ironically, Infinite was a very epic, large scale kind of movie, and was mostly pretty to look at. Yet it absolutely failed to hold my attention.
The Guilty achieved everything that Infinite failed to do for me — and with so much less to work with! Perhaps it could also have been partially Gyllenhaal’s absolutely compelling acting. I may not talk about or appreciate enough about how good of an actor he is, but I guess I should at this point. To carry almost an entire movie by yourself is no small feat. The film also may be good because it followed the original fairly close. While I know it’s practically cheating to be a good movie because you’re a remake of great foreign movie, remaking something well is not always easy. I can name just as many American remakes who failed their original source material as succeed.
Sometimes the best way to enjoy a good story is to strip it down to it’s very basics. For those of you who need a bit of a palette cleanse between watching blockbuster movies, checking out The Guilty on Netflix is a definite recommendation. Not only is it proof a thriller can keep us on the edge of our seat without any action, but that the right script and actors are all it takes to make a great film.
