REVIEW: THE GUILTY

4/5

Guilty As Called.

90 Mins. Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough, Christina Vidal Mitchell, Adrian Martinez, Eli Goree, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Bill Burr, Paul Dano & Peter Sarsgaard. Director: Antoine Fuqua.

Last night I went to the cinema with my parents. Well...the home cinema because of corona, different continents (just outside of Liverpool (Southport) to just outside of Tokyo (Yokohama), what a way to go) and the new Jake Gyllenhaal movie on Netflix. Skyped in sync, bringing us close together after more than 18 months apart at a social and flights distance. Everything else-the buzzed 'Squid Game' which I'll stream soon, I promise "YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET" people. Or Daniel Craig's 'No Time To Die' (that can wait until tomorrow) for his Bond swan song-is less than Jake. Mum says he looks like Dad when he was younger (hmm), me arguing that I'd even shower with Jake Gyllenhaal (wait...that's not what we're talking about). But tell me this new movie from director Antoine Fuqua (the chess, not checkers world of 'Training Day') and screenwriter Nic Pizzolatto (the flat circles of HBO's 'True Detective') is not the perfect home box office one for the small screen N Movie giant as stuck behind the desk duty of a disgraced cop, Gyllenhaal is literally following health and safety protocols, locked down by the book. Or like everyone was taking those no bathing comments literally and giving him his space, wearing masks. 'The Guilty', your honour is a clear conviction of convincing character confliction. As trying to save the day like Denzel in 'The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3' this remake of a 2018 Danish classic (how are Hollywood really about to do this instead of toasting Mads Mikkelsen's 'Druk', going for 'Another Round' with DiCaprio?), Gyllenhaal is 'Guilty' too like Strei-sand and Gibb (word to born star, Bradley Cooper). Someone call 911 like Wyclef, as beeped like Missy, Jake's cop turned emergency response operator is now behind the console controls like the opposite of his 'Source Code' dialled up classic. Tenser than an 'Eye In The Sky', 'Good Kill' (a star of that movie is here too, more on that later), for 'The Call' that changes Gyllenhaal's destiny (hey, Academy) like a similar one Halle Berry received in 2013 for her own critical call-center. Hold the line. 

Engaged in a battle of wills and his own life falling apart at the seams as he seems to make things worse like calling an ex in his asthmatic pressure cooker, Jake is far from the 'End Of Watch', but this taught thriller is as tensely claustrophobic as that David Ayer camcorder classic for your bodies. Think of this as confining and defining to how one amazing actor asking after acclaim can hold our gaze like a 'Rear Window' as his 'Life' friend Ryan Reynolds being 'Buried' alive, or a 'Locke' down Tom Hardy  with some vocal assistance for Venom in the form of your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man Tom Holland (who is not 'Far From Home' from Gyllenhaal's Mysterio). Now that it's all but post-credit confirmed that these two Tom H's will point at each other in Spidey suits like fans only hope they can catch a glimpse of with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, 'No Way Home' this fall. Its all about the voices like a Pixar picture and Netflix can pay the price to pitch as many A-list talents as they have under their umbrella. There's even an unmistakable, classic cameo from comedian and 'Mandalorian' blind-sider, Bill Burr. There's so many "is that" recognisable voices you would swear some were going uncredited like the time the previously mentioned Bradley Cooper called up 'Kate' herself Mary Elizabeth Winstead on her way to '10 Cloverfield Lane'. Riddle me this, is that Gyllenhaal's 'Wildlife' (the best movie of 2018...FACT! No question like the 'Promising Young Woman' of Carey Mulligan) director Paul Dano with the California wildfires raging, reuniting with his fellow 'Prisoner'? Just like the 'Training Day' of the best of the best Ethan Hawke teaming up once more with Fuqua like he did with him AND Denzel for 'The Magnificent Seven'. But for all the voices in Gyllenhaal's head coming out the studio booth. Regina King's 'One Night In Miami's' own Cassius Clay, Eli Goree as his partner (a knockout). Divine Tony nominated, 'Ghost: The Musical' star Da'Vine Joy Randolph's dispatcher ready to dispense rank and order, anytime Gyllenhaal's anger management cop needs that coaching. And an always reliable, character actor Peter Sarsgaard showing us we don't have to see him to believe him. It's Presley granddaughter and Netflix's Tokyo bound 'Earthquake Bird' star Riley Keough that strikes the deepest chord. 

Manning the phones face-to-face for the shield and only a call away we have 'Focus' feature standout (no mean feat between the slick charm of Will Smith and Margot Robbie, who could gain anyone's confidence) Adrian Martinez and 'Code Black' and another 'Training Day' reunion (no Denzel? OK!) Christina Vidal Mitchell running the show with authority. But even amongst all the phoned in cameos (that's a pun not a criticism) for this Toronto Film Festival darling. Pizzolatto's script as slick as his surname. And 'Olympus Has Fallen', 'Shooter', 'Brooklyn's Finest' (hello, Ethan) and 'The Equalizer' franchise director Fuqua's formidable direction (making this '1 2 3' film with situation room (you should see the real Los Angeles emergency response room) shades of 'Pelham' (also Denzel) look like the late, great Tony Scott on steroids), it's very much the great Gyllenhaal's operation. Dialling it all the way up with a buzzsaw (smooth like Netflix 'Velvet') cut and putting down a performance worthy of being a man whose shed Bale's of boxing, 'Raging' De Niro bull weight's next Oscar vehicle. Nightcrawling for some of his 'Stronger' best since 'Brokeback' or 'Donnie'. 'The Guilty' is his most personal and profound since Denis Villeneuve's Toronto spider starring salad days of 'The Enemy' doppelganger. This 'Zodiac' stressful like investigation detects your never and hits you with southpaw after 'Southpaw'. Stressing every emotion. Madder than an online gameplayer, complete with headset. A newbie to this new duty that see his plastic pass decorate his neck, whilst his badge is belt and trouser afterthought to others, not eye-to-eye level. Aggravated, angry to the core and asthmatic. Inhaling more calls than he can handle through the smoke of these forest fires. Forlorn over family, but dedicated to duty. Not good for nothing, but definitely movie name of something. 'Zodiac', 'Prisoner', 'End Of Watch', Gyllenhaal can play these cop characters in his sleep, but wakes up more real life here. This isn't hero worship, or the tropes of a tired white saviour complex. It's a complex cop, beat down into the ground of his own mistakes by the gun that a badge can't shield. Still in the same week Lakers NBA legend and Los Angeles Times and Hollywood Reporter writer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar writes his 'Black Cop's Kid' essay for Amazon, this broadsheet blockbuster is another analysis of both sides of the gun and the fact that we may have forgot that there is still a dichotomy of good cop versus bad cop....even if it does exist in the blue blood of one officer. No one is all good and no one is all bad. There's crooked, corrupt cops that need to be brought to swift justice. Handing in their badge and gun for good, trading them up for silver bracelets. Those are the guilty. Whilst there are some cops that are just trying to do their job. And 'The Guilty' does that by the book. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'End Of Watch', 'Buried', 'The Call'.