The Guilty, which is Denmark’s submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the upcoming Academy Awards, features a main character that’s tailor-made for Jake Gyllenhaal — which is probably how he ended up cast in the American remake that was just reported by Variety. The movie has a very simple set-up: A police officer languishing in desk duty while under investigation for improper conduct ends up fielding an emergency dispatch that consumes his night.
In the original Danish film, lead actor Jakob Cedergren is in every second of the movie, and we spend the entire run-time watching him coach a distressed woman through an emergency call. The more information the officer learns, the more urgently he must find a way to intercept his caller before more lives are lost. As the night goes on we also learn more about why the cop has been taken off street-duty, and the troubled state of his personal life. So if you’re ready to watch Gyllenhaal, framed in tight close-ups, get hit by waves of paranoia, anger, and desperation while wearing a headset, then start counting the days until America gets its own version of The Guilty.