Reviewed London Film Festival October 2018
Opening across UK screens October 26th
Director: Gustav Moller
Cast: Jakob Cedergren
Award: Sundance Audience
“The Guilty is a study in listening without hearing."
"Cedergren is perfect for the role of good, bad and indifferent cop, offering just the right amount of arrogance mixed with best intentions.”
Only the big screen or radio could do justice to this script shot mostly of Jakob Cedergren in close-up playing the demoted, office-bound cop as he fields calls on the emergency line. Moving only from one desk to another, Asger (Cedergren) answers-back callers and ticks-off drunks. He interprets and presumes. Sometimes he makes the right call, sometimes he doesn’t.
Answering a call to a distressed woman whose traumatised child has been left home alone, he directs a hunt to save her over the phone. Calling on his previous partner to help, Asger is eventually forced to reveal his own misdemeanors. In the end, is he ‘a good man’, as the woman claims?
The Guilty is a study in listening without hearing. The script is so tight on suspense, it never lets up. Even if you play the guessing game and predict outcomes, the result is reminiscent of a Greek Tragedy. Did things have to happen that way? How could events have possibly been avoided?
Cedergren is perfect for the role of good, bad and indifferent cop, offering just the right amount of arrogance mixed with best intentions. And credit must be due to the actors who never appear on screen.