The Guilty 2021: Netflix release date of Jake Gyllenhaal movie, reviews, trailer - and who stars in cast?

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ethan Hawke Netflix’s new thriller arrived on Netflix on Friday 1 October
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Based on the critically acclaimed Danish movie, Jake Gyllenhaal stars in Netflix’s latest thriller, The Guilty.

Set in an emergency call centre, the film follows Joe Baylor (Gyllenhaal) who attempts to get to the bottom of an abduction after a mysterious phone call.

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The film was written by True Detective writer Nic Pizzolatto, and directed by Training Day’s Antonie Fuqua, and was shot during the pandemic. Some of the actors were required to record their lines from their homes.

Here’s all you need to know about Netflix’s The Guilty.

When is The Guilty released?

The Guilty was released on Netflix on Friday 01 October.

Who stars in The Guilty

Jake Gyllenhaal leads the cast in The Guilty. Gyllenhaal plays Joe Baylor, an emergency call centre operator who becomes invested in finding a missing person after a mysterious phone call.

Speaking about being a part of the project, Gyllenhaal said: "As soon as I saw it, I felt like it needed to be transposed into an American context,’ he recalls. "Sometimes, you just have these feelings in your bones. It immediately spoke to me. It had a lot of things that I love about storytelling.

"The interesting thing about Joe is that he’s out of place being an emergency operator – he doesn’t have the same rhythm as someone who does the job on a daily basis. I’ve had the honour of playing a number of first responders on screen, and I have done a lot of research into the job, but the originality of this character is that he doesn’t fit the role.

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"Joe really does not enjoy his job. But, in the end, what he realises is, in order to solve this case, he has to face a truth within himself. I love characters that are question marks, and, in a lot of ways, Joe is the ultimate question mark."

The film also features Zola’s Riley Keough as Emily Lighton, Peter Sarsgaard, Gyllenhaal’s real-life brother-in-law, as Henry Fisher, and Boyhood’s Ethan Hawke as Sergeant Ben Miller.

What is The Guilty about?

The Guilty follows troubled police detective Joe Baylor (Gyllenhaal), who has been demoted to 911 operator duty.

The film sees Baylor scramble to save a distressed kidnapped caller during a harrowing day of revelations and reckonings.

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However, all is not as it seems, and the LAPD officer also must contend with his past, poor health, failing relationship and the raging California wildfires, which are creating chaos and draining resources.

The original Danish movie was a hit amongst the critics, and made the selection for the Danish submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards.

What have the critics made of The Guilty

The film has been liked by critics overall, receiving an approval rating of 74 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

The critics consensus of the film is that the film fails to hold up to the Danish original, but is still strong enough to be a tense and well acted thriller.

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Brain Tallerico for RogerEbert.com gave the film three stars, but praised Gyllenhaal performance, calling him “one of the most consistent actors alive.”

Nick Harley for Den of Geek also gave the film three stars, saying Gyllenhaal delivers a powerful performance, but faltered the script for not having anything interesting to say beyond its melodrama.

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