By Teresa Acosta
“The Guilty,” a new Netflix thriller, highlights the stress and mental health of a Los Angeles Police Department officer.
Officer Joe Baylor, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, spends most in a tense and stressed out state.
As soon as you get wrapped up in the trajectory of this movie, the plot shifts and the real tension begins.
The movie is filmed in one location, a 911 emergency call center.
Although there are a few aerial landscape shots of the city in the beginning and at the end, the majority of the screen is focused on Gyllenhaal.
He plays a troubled LAPD officer who has been placed on desk duty answering 911 calls.
The tension rises as a call comes in from a woman who is pretending to be on a call with her child.
The caller gives yes or no answers to Baylor in an attempt to get help for the child.
She is in a vehicle that is on the move, which makes finding her very difficult.
Baylor jumps back and forth between doing what is legal and breaking the law to try and help this woman.
His personal life seems to be in shambles and it is a source of distress that fuels his need to do whatever it takes to help.
Gyllenhaal’s acting allows viewers to feel the anger, panic and anguish of being helpless.
It may also be attributed to the extreme close ups shown of Gyllenhaal that really bring the viewer into the movie.
The other characters in the movie are somewhat oblivious to the high stakes of the call and of the real trouble Baylor is facing from an impending court date.
Few details are really given about his personal troubles. Enough is said for viewers to make an assumption that it is a current issue facing law enforcement officers.
The lines are blurred between what they can and cannot be held accountable for.
Viewers are kept at the edge of their seats waiting to discover the caller’s location, and then they are hit with a plot twist that completely changes everything.
From beginning to end the movie draws viewers into a high stakes game of will-he-or won’t-he.