`Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films’, said Bong Joon-Ho in an acceptance speech at the Golden Globes ceremony. The critical acclaim, popularity and success at the Oscars of Parasite represented a small victory in the war against remaking films in order to avoid the aforementioned barrier of subtitles. However, sadly the case of Parasite is not the norm, but an exception to the rule instead. Remaking films from a foreign language to English has been a common practice for a long time, with some notably egregious examples like Jay Roach’s Dinner for Schmucks –the imbecile remake of Francis Veber’s Le Dîner de Cons- and Downhill -which wasted Julia Louis Dreyfus and Will Ferrell in a bland remake of the cleverly sharp Force Majeure, film by Ruben Östlund (originally titled Turist)-. Before the arrival of the -unnecessary and incomprehensible- remake of Another Round, we get the chance to see The Guilty, yet another remake of a foreign film, this time of a 2018 Danish film of the same title (Den Skyldige).

In the same way as Leonardo DiCaprio has done with Another Round, Jake Gyllenhaal bought the rights of the film directed by Gustav Möller, has put himself in the lead role and, for the occasion, counts with Antoine Fuqua to occupy the director’s chair -they both worked together in Southpaw back in 2015-. Like its Danish counterpart, The Guilty is centred on a demoted police officer (in Los Angeles instead of Copenhagen, though) who finds himself forced to work on a dispatch centre as a disciplinary measure, whilst anxiously awaiting a trial that can take him back to his old position. Despite a brief opening that shows Los Angeles being hit by wildfire and social protests, the rest of the film takes place in the dispatch centre where Gyllenhaal’s character fights his anxiety and breathing problems to perfunctorily handle 911 calls. His experience as a police officer allows him the nerve to easily get through the calls… that is until he receives a call from a distressed woman named Emily who pretends to be engaged in a conversation with a child, but might have been abducted instead.  

The reasoning behind why Gyllenhaal decided to buy the rights for the film and put himself in the lead role is pretty evident, as the nature of the film allows him to fully showcase all his talent as an actor. In a career like the one Gyllenhaal has -with great performances as the ones in Nightcrawler, Prisoners, The Enemy, Nocturnal Animals or Brokeback Mountain to name only a few- is difficult to pinpoint his best work. However, his volatile turn in The Guilty is clearly up there. From the first minute to the last, Gyllenhaal convincingly portrays the complexities of his character, a man tormented by his past and afraid of what is to come who still manages to overcome his fears and hides himself behind the scary mask of authority, strongly commanding others what to do without a glimpse of doubt in his voice -just to, seconds later, make evident his character’s hesitation when he feels he is overcome by the situation and is about to have a breakdown-. Although Gyllenhaal is clearly the best thing in the film, the rest of the cast -especially Riley Keough, Peter Sarsgaard, Ethan Hawke and Paul Dano- does wonders with their roles, despite the fact that we only get to hear their voices off screen.

The fact that the dispatch centre -with all those big TV’s showing images of LA on fire, mimicking what is going on inside our protagonist- is slightly more modern and sleeker than it might be on real life does not really matter as the camera barely moves away very far from Gyllenhaal. Fuqua proves that he knows what he is doing as he avoids any external element that can create action -like any shot of what is happening at the other end of the telephone line-, making the viewer feel the tension and claustrophobia in their own skin only with the use of close ups and a great editing by Jason Ballantine. Contributing to this is Nic Pizzolatto’s script which captures the essence of the original screenplay by Gustav Möller and Emil Nygaard Albertsen -although it is not devoid of flaws-, and also makes a few timely updates that reflect on what is happening with the police in the USA.  

With a brief runtime of less than 90 minutes, The Guilty is a tense, white-knuckle ride which, despite joining the list of unnecessary remakes that are not better than the film they are based on, it is completely held together by an impressive performance by Gyllenhaal that is worth the price of admission. All in all, while it feels safer than it should, it is not a badly made film and it might be considered as appropiated for the time being, due to some of the themes explored. Furthermore, at the very least it justifies itself as, at the end of the day, there is a great chance that it will increase the popularity of the original film.