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Rose Reviews: The Guilty

Writer's picture: Rose DemicaRose Demica

When writing short films, one is often advised to keep sets and characters to a minimum - especially if you’re a crew of volunteers and/or paying for it out of your own pocket. A common challenge for screenwriters is a ‘one character’ or ‘one room’ challenge, sometimes both.


What I never considered is trying to do this for a whole feature film. Which is exactly what Netflix’s The Guilty does. Joe Baylor is a Police Officer who is on desk duty, working at a 911 call centre. We follow him as he answers calls and dispatches the appropriate help, albeit with a large amount of sass. (If his supervisor ever checked in on his calls he would definitely be taken off of the help desk).


One of the calls he answers is from Emily, a young woman who has been abducted, and it’s her adventure that we hear through phone calls with various other people.


Honestly, I think this is ingenious.


In our new pandemic times, we are challenged to make content that fits inside social distancing rules, and keeps people safe, without ever mentioning why. No one wants to be reminded of what’s just outside our doors,


Throughout the entire film, we only see about five people, although we hear the voices of a dozen more. They are socially distanced, no one comes within two meters (roughly six feet for you Imperial users) of each other, although we never question why.


I also think this was also incredibly risky, the entire film hangs on the acting of one person. There are no epic chase scenes to play out in front of us, only the audio of one. The moments of great revelation come through a phone. We as the audience aren’t ‘in on’ what’s about to happen, we can’t see the panicked six year old, nor her sleeping brother, we can only hear about them.


In saying that, Jake Gyllenhaal does an amazing job. The movie plays out in his face and his actions, and it’s riveting. I was drawn in for the ride, and enjoyed every moment of it.


All in all, well worth a watch.


And an interesting challenge for us screenwriters out there.


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