The Guilty was played at the NZ International Film Festival and is now being released to a selection of theatres around the country. This crime thriller does an absolutely stellar job using the mere minimum of budget. The entire film is centred around one man working in two adjacent rooms for 85 minutes. It sounds like it would be a rather sluggish and laboured watch, but the complete opposite comes about.
Leading man Jakob Cedergren plays Asger Holm, an emergency services dispatcher, who answers the call of a woman being kidnapped and must do what he can to try and save her, from his desk. All other personnel on the screen are irrelevant to the story, and all other characters that are relevant, are never seen.
This is the kind of film that puts the mind into hyperdrive. It is as if the viewers are experiencing an audiobook on the big screen. Not being able to see the events unfolding, only hearing the conversations over the phone, it forces us to use our imaginations to conjure up images of the characters, locations, and events in our heads, using only the sound of their voices over the phone. As such, every member of the audience has their own private experience.
 |
| Photo credit: Nikolaj Moeller |
Even with a very limited area to shoot and only one actor to focus on, the film makes creative use of lighting and camera angles to prevent the film from becoming visually monotonous. Extra credit is due for Cedergren also, who is able to create such an emotive performance with so little. You could close your eyes and experience the film with only audio, but you would lose this acutely empathetic showcase from Cedergren. You can feel the stress and tension with every sweat droplet that emerges on his forehead.
The amount of suspense in the film is practically indescribable. Every time a call cuts out, the tension increases. Sitting in complete silence waiting, hoping for them to call back. So perfectly staged and directed, the film has no score, instead, doing the complete opposite and removing background sounds from time to time. Sucking the sound out caused the tension to spike every time, as you could hear your every breath, every heartbeat. The silence was perfectly timed and left you wanting to tear out your hair while you scream at the screen in frustration. But of course, instead, you remain deathly silent not wanting to miss any potential subtle hints.
The Guilty is a groundbreaking experience. A film that is able to portray the full emotional power of a book with near enough no visual stimuli. A direct contradiction to "show don't tell" but it worked so well. Cliffhanger after cliffhanger, The Guilty plays off of our innate need to fill knowledge gaps with stereotypes and prejudices and constantly subverts our expectations with every piece of the puzzle that is revealed. A powerhouse of a film that thrills without action.