The film started as very promising and I was convinced it was my kind of film, intense, suspenseful and dark, but not too dark. Unlike others, I didn't find the dialogues annoying or a torture to the ears, on the contrary I thought the sound was very well dealt with and appropriate to the film style. I equally liked the setting, not being able to see anything beyond the room Gyllenhaal was in, wondering what was going on at the other end of the line and the whole premise. There was a point, towards the last 20 minutes of the film when I started losing interest and got baffled by the main character's reactions. I didn't get the reason why all of a sudden Gyllenhaal got so emotional and I certainly missed the point of his change of plea. There was no background to his actions prior to the 911 call that lead to his trial and even when some snippets were revealed I failed to see how his success at preventing a mentally unstable person from killing herself (and the child she injured from dying) made him feel more guilty about his own crime (?) than before the call. I don't regret watching the film just because Gyllenhaal is always good at whatever I've seen him in, but it's not the kind I would recommend to friends or watch again.
Review of The Guilty
