The Guilty

I have not seen the original film, and I went into this film completely blind, stumbling across it on Netflix. I understand that the original is likely better. However as a viewer who has not seen the original I consider this film to be a near masterpiece. Jake Gyllenhaal delivers a top tier performance, as he often does, and here it matters more than most films. This film has some of the most jaw dropping and intense reveals I’ve witnessed in a movie. The movie is rather small in terms of scale with the entire film taking place within one building. I think the idea of confinement both physically and mentally being used to create tension is highly appealing to me, as it was used expertly here just like it was in films like 12 Angry Men. The shots always feel tight and it’s coupled with a strong score under toning almost every scene. I think this film is massively underrated, and I think that the low scores are a large part due to people watching this film and being unable to get immersed due to the environment in which they were viewing the film or due to preconception based on the original film, in which case that is very fair. The only reason that I personally do not consider this movie, a perfect 5/5 is due to the fact that it was not an original work was based on another film that had released not that long before this one. I understand some audiences prefer English/American films however I don’t think it takes away from what this movie you managed to accomplish personally for me, despite the small scale and decently short length of this film, it had me immersed in a way that most movies are unable to accomplish with more time, resources, and larger ideas. I will watch the original film someday and I do expect it to be a little better than this one. However, I think this one serves as a great alternative to the other version and is massively underrated. I think most people missed the mark of what this film was trying to accomplish and should watch it without the preconceptions of the original film, to view it as its own original product, as I did.