The Guilty Parent Guide

Once a detective with the LAPD, Joe Baylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) is now under investigation and has been reassigned to the 911 call center until his trial. Between the fires raging around the city and the usual criminality of the residents of LA, the phones are always busy. One crisis in particular attracts Joe’s attention: a young woman named Emily (Riley Keough) has called in, seemingly talking to a child – but when Joe asks a few more questions, he learns that she’s been abducted by her boyfriend, Henry (Peter Sarsgaard) and is desperate for emergency assistance. The subterfuge is necessary to keep Henry from becoming suspicious, but is also limits the kind of information Emily can provide, which in turn limits the options Joe has to help. And as Joe tries to save her, he’s forced to confront his anger, the limits of his abilities, and his own past…

Ever wanted to watch Jake Gyllenhaal have the better part of a mental breakdown in real time? Then this is the film for you! Based on a Dutch film of the same name, The Guilty tests Gyllenhaal’s emotional range, and unsurprisingly, finds him more than up to the task. As the film goes on, Gyllenhaal is forced to explore more and more of this character, and the work he puts in is evident on screen.

I’m also a big fan of the limited environment. Without the benefit of other locations, the story has to become more focused. The only information that comes into the call center is, by nature, urgent, and this forces the filmmakers to pick only information that is relevant either to the story or the development of the characters. This also means that it’s much easier to maintain tension since the audience is, essentially, just as blind to the realities of the situation as Joe is.

As the film occurs entirely within the bounds of the 911 dispatch center, almost none of the content concerns happen on screen, which does make this more suitable for a broader audience – until the profanity comes in. With 61 f-bombs in 90 minutes, this is not going to be a movie for those with delicate ears. If that’s the case, you’re probably also not going to be wild about some of the things being described over the phone, either. But if you’re looking for a very capable, tense, and emotional thriller, you’re going to be hard pressed to find one with less objectionable content. Or one with more Jake Gyllenhaal.