The Guilty (2018)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Prey Phone

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

This electrifying, drum-tight thriller from Denmark somehow, remarkably, made the shortlist for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination, despite not being about anything important or depressing. It focuses largely on one character, Asger Holm (Jakob Cedergren), a police officer who has been temporarily assigned to manning the phones at dispatch while awaiting a misconduct trial. It's his last day before the trial, and he is hopeful that things will go well and he can return to his job. He answers a few routine calls before hearing from a woman who seems to have been kidnapped. Using only the phone and his instincts, he attempts to rescue her, but discovers that something much bigger is going on. Director Gustav Möller stays razor-focused on Asger, never leaving the dispatch office, with only a few other characters moving in and out of the picture. The voices on the phone are never seen. Even with such a limited palette, Möller keeps things moving with expertly chosen close-ups, wider shots, and cuts, and especially the lights on the phone banks. The Guilty probably has very little chance of getting the nomination, but it's amazingly exciting and well worth seeking out.