‘The Guilty’: There is No Reason to Watch This American Remake Instead of the 2018 Original [Review]

Auteur extraordinaire Antoine Fuqua’s “The Guilty” is being released in theatres today, and on Netflix on October 14th. It’s pretty much a beat-by-beat remake of Gustav Möller’s Danish thriller, which had its World Premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival to glowing reviews.

Möller’s film kept the viewer on the edge of their seat for the entirety of its 85 claustrophobic minutes, and made you forget that its concept involved nothing more than a dispatcher (Jakob Cedergrem) trying to solve a mystery by phone. In Fuqua’s remake, Cedergrem is replaced by Jake Gyllenhaal who does an excellent job in the role of a demoted police officer now doing desk work as an emergency dispatcher.

The crux of the drama involves our dispatcher answering a panicked phone call from a kidnapped woman who then disconnects abruptly. As time runs out, the search for the missing woman and her assailant takes on hurried resonance. The twist ending of the original is kept intact, but the artistry is gone. Instead of retaining the taut minimalism of the original, Fuqua instead goes for a more glossy and macho version of the story. Some of it is no doubt entertaining, but if you’ve seen the 2018 film, what’s the point of recommending this far inferior one?

In fact, this remake’s sole raison d’être is Jake Gyllenhaal’s intense performance as a disgraced cop trying to undo his past mistakes. It’s another showcase for an artist that has proven time and time again to be one of the best working actors alive. [C+]