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Review: The Guilty (Den skyldige) (2018)
This was a really good movie! It was a good thriller with a serious story and heavy themes. It also had great acting within a confined setting. The voice actors especially were really good in this movie.
I would highly recommend this movie.
Spoilers.
Story
This is the story in chronological order. Iben and Michael are exes, and they had two children, Mathilde and Oliver. Michael had a criminal record that included assault.
Michael went over to Iben's house and found that she had killed Oliver, believing that there were snakes in his body and that opening him up would help him. Michael then told Mathilde not to go in the room, and then he was going to drive Iben to a psychiatric hospital.
On the trip, Iben called the police under the guise of calling Mathilde, and she told Asger, our emergency dispatch person, that she was being abducted.
Based on Michael's past convictions, Asger thought that he was abducting her, that he was the one who killed Oliver. Asger had tried to help Iben escape Michael's captivity, but only when she did, did Asger realize that he had the story backwards.
Iben escaped from Michael's car, and she came to the realization that she killed Oliver. She wanted to commit suicide, but Asger stayed with her on the line, and she eventually walked back from the edge when the police came.
There was a subplot with regards to Asger. He'd shot a 19 year old, who'd presumably only committed a minor offence. His trial was the next day, and he'd gotten his partner to perjure on his behalf as well, but after the events of the day, he told his partner that he doesn't have to hide his crimes for him anymore.
The gimmick of this story was that it took place completely at the police dispatch center. That already draws in viewers, but in these cases, the quality of the story is very important. Did what Asger did make sense? For the most part, I think it did. He wasn't meant to be a perfect emergency dispatch officer. He was only human, but he himself had done a bad thing, and it was interesting to see how he reacted in situations of high stress.
The other big story here was that technically, all Asger had done was create a problem and solve it himself. Michael's intention was to take Iben to a psychiatric hospital. In the end, Iben was taken into police custody, and would probably be taken to a psychiatric hospital.
The writing for this movie was extremely good. I was drawn in right away, when Asger started speaking to Iben. I think the thing was that like Asger, I could only rely on Iben's voice to figure out what was going on, so I was very focused. I wanted to know what was happening, but I was also trying to piece together the clues in my head as well. Just, the writing in this movie, spectacular.
Production
With a movie like this, there were less factors that went into what made this a good movie. What I mean by that is that Jakob Cedergren, the actor for Asger, is pretty much the only on-screen actor who mattered. His performance in terms of his body language was very important, because he was the ONLY visual we got.
That being said, the voice acting was terrific. I'm guessing that a bunch of voice actors were hired, instead a bunch of celebrities with big names. That was the key, because they were very expressive, and very emotive.
The production and set design was extremely simple, because all of this took place in the office anyway, but we weren't paying attention to that anyway.
Characters
Asger Holm
Asger was our point of view character, as well as the only on screen character.
Asger was a suspended cop. He'd gotten into an altercation with a young man of 19 years, and he'd shot him. In his conversation with Iben near the end, Asger said that the man had done a bad thing, but he shouldn't have shot him, so I think it was implied that the 19 year old man was perhaps a minor felon, and Asger completely overreacted by shooting him.
Asger's trial for the shooting was the next day, and he and his partner Rashid had agreed on a story that they were going to tell that would protect Asger.
Based on the first few dispatch calls that Asger got, we can see that he's a bureaucratic man. He probably just treated his dispatch job like a not-so-important desk job. As well, he was a bit judgy of the people who called in. I mean, some of them were probably not great, but at the same time, he had a duty to be professional.
Anyway, Asger sat right up when he realized that Iben was being abducted, and he was very serious from then on. We saw that he was in fact capable of doing his job well, talking to Mathilde calmly to ask her for information, using his computer resources, etc.
That being said, Asger did jump to conclusions several times. Since Iben was calling him, he did automatically jump on her side, believing that Michael was the aggressor and that she was the victim. When he'd called Michael and told him off, it was very unprofessional of him, and he later realized how wrong he was.
By the end, Asger realized he'd done a bad thing, and he was doing everything in his power to talk Iben off the bridge. The person at dispatch told Asger that he'd done a good job by doing so, but clearly Asger wasn't feeling proud, because he'd created the problem.
Before, Asger was a typical power-hungry, trigger-happy cop. He said he'd shot the victim because he could, so he enjoyed holding that power.
I think Asger saw helping Iben as a task in which he could not do wrong. If he'd claimed he'd shot the victim in self-defense, that is murky. But you can't challenge his morality when he says he tried to help an abductee. His friend asked him if he was going above and beyond because of his trial, and perhaps he was, trying to erase or hide the bad that he'd done. Except he'd completely misinterpreted the situation, and had ended up hurting someone who was trying to help Iben, and Asger felt shameful about it.
By the end of the movie, Asger no longer wanted to lie about his wrongdoing. I think from the experience, he realized how easy life was for him. Maybe life was too easy for him and that's why he wielded the power of life and death so flippantly. But people like Michael and Iben even struggled to be together, to have a family, and the police, who were supposed to be protectors, couldn't do anything for him. And like he said with Iben, Iben had killed Oliver because she thought she was helping him, but Asger did not have any good intentions when he pulled the trigger.
I also wanted to say that during the movie, even when Asger was working to help Iben, I felt that he was a bit rash? I just felt like he needed Iben to be saved for himself, rather than for Iben. I think he wanted to do one good thing for once in his life.
When Rashid was slightly drunk, he still told him to go over to Michael's house to look for clues. Asger had actually called another friend, Bo, to ask him to break into Michael's house for clues. I know that there is a mismatch here between morality and justice because breaking into the house was against the law but also would've helped them. I think the deal is that Asger has always kind of bent the laws, and before, he'd bent the law for selfish, power-tripping reasons, and now he was bending the law to try to help someone.
Also, when the biker got hurt and asked him to send an ambulance, he was like "I have no time for you." It was pretty dismissive of him, because what if the biker had actually broken their leg? But the sense that I'm getting is that as an emergency dispatcher, his triage skills should be pretty good, and he can tell that even with subpar emergency services the biker could survive.
Iben Ostergard
Iben was the woman who'd called 112 (emergency services). She was scared because she'd been kidnapped. In truth, her ex-husband, who admittedly did have a history of assault, was trying to send her to the psychiatric hospital after he found that she'd cut up their son.
During the chat with Asger when he was trying to calm her down, Asger found out that she was the one to have cut up Oliver and not Michael. I'm not sure what happened afterwards when she started wandering, but Iben came to the realization that she'd killed Oliver. It was kind of convenient from a plot standpoint, but I'm not going to question it.
So I think the deal here is that Iben has always needed help, but the only person who would perhaps listen to her was probably an emergency dispatcher. Perhaps she needed psychiatric help before but could not get access to it, or was not around people who could see that she needed help. She was divorced so Michael wasn't around, and her kids weren't going to know that she needed help. Her cry for help came completely from her point of view, though which distorted Asger's version of events.
Anyway, I am so happy that Iben survived in the end.
Michael Berg
Michael was a bricklayer, Iben's ex-husband, and he'd done time for assault. Michael was driving Iben to the psychiatric hospital, which scared her.
Michael told Asger that he didn't trust the police. Presumably he's had run-ins with the police, based on his past history, and perhaps there was some miscarriage of justice. But as an ex-felon, he's also probably judged very poorly by the public. He probably lost his custody case because of his felony charge, even though Iben was unwell, and that was probably why Michael didn't trust the authorities.
Mathilde
Mathilde was Iben and Michael's daughter. Asger had spoken to her to get information on Michael. Understandable, the confrontation between Iben and Michael scared her and she was very upset. She just wanted her mom back, and she didn't want her dad to her mom. So again, talking to Mathilde distorted Asger's version of events, because there was a lot going on behind the scenes that Mathilde didn't know about.
Rashid
Rashid was Asger's partner when they were patroling. After Asger had shot a man, Rashid had agreed to lie on Asger's behalf. Rashid had given a statement, and he was going to be Asger's witness the day after.
We can see that Asger and Rashid had a very close relationship, considering Rashid would do something off-duty for Asger (going to Michael Berg's house).
When Asger told Rashid that he didn't have to lie for him, Rashid was very up in arms about it, because he'd already given his statement. If Rashid went back on his word, he might've been charged for perjury. I have no doubt that Rashid was just as much as a power-hungry cop as Asger was.
This interaction also led me to think that Asger is rash and a little selfish. When he pulled Rashid into his mess, he was implicating him as well. Asger pulling out of their story left Rashid as collateral damage. He couldn't just "pull out" because it would hurt all of the people around him, though of course, Rashid himself did a wrong thing by lying for Asger as well.
I think Rashid was sort of a representation of what Asger was like before.
Themes
Guilt
As per the name of the movie, I was looking for themes of justice and guilt in this movie.
With regards to guilt, I think the story shed more light on how much responsibility emergency dispatchers have on preventing crimes, and not letting criminals get away.
In this movie, if Asger had no talked Iben down from the bridge, he would've had a death on his hands. Technically, Michael sort of had the situation in control. He was just going to take an upset Iben to the psychiatric hospital to get her help. Asger's involvement would have killed Iben, since it was upon his instruction that she escaped from Michael.
As well, Asger interpreting the story from Iben incorrectly meant that all of the dispatch might've gone to the wrong places. If the patrol car actually caught Michael, they might've shot him, if they were as trigger-happy as other cops. As well, Officer Tim Anderson who'd visited Mathilde was the one who said that Michael had killed Oliver. Well, he said something like "he cut him open," which led Asger to believe that Michael was the killer, when in reality, Tim had just made an assumption.
So basically, cops have a lot of responsibility in looking at situations neutrally and critically.
Justice
Right from the start, Asger was pretty judgy about people who called him, and though he still patched them through to emergency services, he would give them shit for it. For example, when the guy got mugged by a prostitute, Asger judged the guy and told patrol cars to make him wait a bit.
The emergency dispatchers are also carrying out justice. As mentioned in the above section about guilt, we see that they do have an impact on the way a situation plays out.
There is also a mismatch between justice and morality. As mentioned, Asger had asked Bo and then Rashid to break into Michael's house if necessary to find clues. This was technically illegal, but what if it was in extenuating circumstances? I think this would be one where breaking in would have been forgiven.
Bureaucracy
Emergency dispatch was just like any other job. People had shifts, people had responsibilities, there was a chain of command, etc.
One way in which bureaucracy was shown was when Asger was speaking to people in other departments. Sometimes, when he called other people, he would start with small talk, even though he was technically dealing with emergency situations. But small talk was how you built connections, right?
There was some bureaucratic frustration when Asger was speaking with the North Zealand dispatcher. He wanted to have more control over the patrol cars who were searching for Michael's white van, but the dispatcher told him to stay in his own lane. For Asger, who was very anxious about the situation, it was difficult for him to leave the situation in other people's hands, but he had to do that, because everybody was assigned to their own tasks.
Custody rights
This was only touched on briefly via Iben and Michael's relationship. Iben got custody of the kids, probably because Michael had a criminal record, but we saw in the movie that she was not a fit mother at all. How did this happen? Was it the criminal record, or was it simply because the courts thought that kids should stay with the mother?
Overall
This was a very good, very tight movie. The story was tight, but I thought that the themes were well-explored in a way where I didn't feel like I was getting punched in the face with his apparent it was. I would definitely recommend this movie.
I would highly recommend this movie.
Spoilers.
Story
This is the story in chronological order. Iben and Michael are exes, and they had two children, Mathilde and Oliver. Michael had a criminal record that included assault.
Michael went over to Iben's house and found that she had killed Oliver, believing that there were snakes in his body and that opening him up would help him. Michael then told Mathilde not to go in the room, and then he was going to drive Iben to a psychiatric hospital.
On the trip, Iben called the police under the guise of calling Mathilde, and she told Asger, our emergency dispatch person, that she was being abducted.
Based on Michael's past convictions, Asger thought that he was abducting her, that he was the one who killed Oliver. Asger had tried to help Iben escape Michael's captivity, but only when she did, did Asger realize that he had the story backwards.
Iben escaped from Michael's car, and she came to the realization that she killed Oliver. She wanted to commit suicide, but Asger stayed with her on the line, and she eventually walked back from the edge when the police came.
There was a subplot with regards to Asger. He'd shot a 19 year old, who'd presumably only committed a minor offence. His trial was the next day, and he'd gotten his partner to perjure on his behalf as well, but after the events of the day, he told his partner that he doesn't have to hide his crimes for him anymore.
The gimmick of this story was that it took place completely at the police dispatch center. That already draws in viewers, but in these cases, the quality of the story is very important. Did what Asger did make sense? For the most part, I think it did. He wasn't meant to be a perfect emergency dispatch officer. He was only human, but he himself had done a bad thing, and it was interesting to see how he reacted in situations of high stress.
The other big story here was that technically, all Asger had done was create a problem and solve it himself. Michael's intention was to take Iben to a psychiatric hospital. In the end, Iben was taken into police custody, and would probably be taken to a psychiatric hospital.
The writing for this movie was extremely good. I was drawn in right away, when Asger started speaking to Iben. I think the thing was that like Asger, I could only rely on Iben's voice to figure out what was going on, so I was very focused. I wanted to know what was happening, but I was also trying to piece together the clues in my head as well. Just, the writing in this movie, spectacular.
Production
With a movie like this, there were less factors that went into what made this a good movie. What I mean by that is that Jakob Cedergren, the actor for Asger, is pretty much the only on-screen actor who mattered. His performance in terms of his body language was very important, because he was the ONLY visual we got.
That being said, the voice acting was terrific. I'm guessing that a bunch of voice actors were hired, instead a bunch of celebrities with big names. That was the key, because they were very expressive, and very emotive.
The production and set design was extremely simple, because all of this took place in the office anyway, but we weren't paying attention to that anyway.
Characters
Asger Holm
Asger was our point of view character, as well as the only on screen character.
Asger was a suspended cop. He'd gotten into an altercation with a young man of 19 years, and he'd shot him. In his conversation with Iben near the end, Asger said that the man had done a bad thing, but he shouldn't have shot him, so I think it was implied that the 19 year old man was perhaps a minor felon, and Asger completely overreacted by shooting him.
Asger's trial for the shooting was the next day, and he and his partner Rashid had agreed on a story that they were going to tell that would protect Asger.
Based on the first few dispatch calls that Asger got, we can see that he's a bureaucratic man. He probably just treated his dispatch job like a not-so-important desk job. As well, he was a bit judgy of the people who called in. I mean, some of them were probably not great, but at the same time, he had a duty to be professional.
Anyway, Asger sat right up when he realized that Iben was being abducted, and he was very serious from then on. We saw that he was in fact capable of doing his job well, talking to Mathilde calmly to ask her for information, using his computer resources, etc.
That being said, Asger did jump to conclusions several times. Since Iben was calling him, he did automatically jump on her side, believing that Michael was the aggressor and that she was the victim. When he'd called Michael and told him off, it was very unprofessional of him, and he later realized how wrong he was.
By the end, Asger realized he'd done a bad thing, and he was doing everything in his power to talk Iben off the bridge. The person at dispatch told Asger that he'd done a good job by doing so, but clearly Asger wasn't feeling proud, because he'd created the problem.
Before, Asger was a typical power-hungry, trigger-happy cop. He said he'd shot the victim because he could, so he enjoyed holding that power.
I think Asger saw helping Iben as a task in which he could not do wrong. If he'd claimed he'd shot the victim in self-defense, that is murky. But you can't challenge his morality when he says he tried to help an abductee. His friend asked him if he was going above and beyond because of his trial, and perhaps he was, trying to erase or hide the bad that he'd done. Except he'd completely misinterpreted the situation, and had ended up hurting someone who was trying to help Iben, and Asger felt shameful about it.
By the end of the movie, Asger no longer wanted to lie about his wrongdoing. I think from the experience, he realized how easy life was for him. Maybe life was too easy for him and that's why he wielded the power of life and death so flippantly. But people like Michael and Iben even struggled to be together, to have a family, and the police, who were supposed to be protectors, couldn't do anything for him. And like he said with Iben, Iben had killed Oliver because she thought she was helping him, but Asger did not have any good intentions when he pulled the trigger.
I also wanted to say that during the movie, even when Asger was working to help Iben, I felt that he was a bit rash? I just felt like he needed Iben to be saved for himself, rather than for Iben. I think he wanted to do one good thing for once in his life.
When Rashid was slightly drunk, he still told him to go over to Michael's house to look for clues. Asger had actually called another friend, Bo, to ask him to break into Michael's house for clues. I know that there is a mismatch here between morality and justice because breaking into the house was against the law but also would've helped them. I think the deal is that Asger has always kind of bent the laws, and before, he'd bent the law for selfish, power-tripping reasons, and now he was bending the law to try to help someone.
Also, when the biker got hurt and asked him to send an ambulance, he was like "I have no time for you." It was pretty dismissive of him, because what if the biker had actually broken their leg? But the sense that I'm getting is that as an emergency dispatcher, his triage skills should be pretty good, and he can tell that even with subpar emergency services the biker could survive.
Iben Ostergard
Iben was the woman who'd called 112 (emergency services). She was scared because she'd been kidnapped. In truth, her ex-husband, who admittedly did have a history of assault, was trying to send her to the psychiatric hospital after he found that she'd cut up their son.
During the chat with Asger when he was trying to calm her down, Asger found out that she was the one to have cut up Oliver and not Michael. I'm not sure what happened afterwards when she started wandering, but Iben came to the realization that she'd killed Oliver. It was kind of convenient from a plot standpoint, but I'm not going to question it.
So I think the deal here is that Iben has always needed help, but the only person who would perhaps listen to her was probably an emergency dispatcher. Perhaps she needed psychiatric help before but could not get access to it, or was not around people who could see that she needed help. She was divorced so Michael wasn't around, and her kids weren't going to know that she needed help. Her cry for help came completely from her point of view, though which distorted Asger's version of events.
Anyway, I am so happy that Iben survived in the end.
Michael Berg
Michael was a bricklayer, Iben's ex-husband, and he'd done time for assault. Michael was driving Iben to the psychiatric hospital, which scared her.
Michael told Asger that he didn't trust the police. Presumably he's had run-ins with the police, based on his past history, and perhaps there was some miscarriage of justice. But as an ex-felon, he's also probably judged very poorly by the public. He probably lost his custody case because of his felony charge, even though Iben was unwell, and that was probably why Michael didn't trust the authorities.
Mathilde
Mathilde was Iben and Michael's daughter. Asger had spoken to her to get information on Michael. Understandable, the confrontation between Iben and Michael scared her and she was very upset. She just wanted her mom back, and she didn't want her dad to her mom. So again, talking to Mathilde distorted Asger's version of events, because there was a lot going on behind the scenes that Mathilde didn't know about.
Rashid
Rashid was Asger's partner when they were patroling. After Asger had shot a man, Rashid had agreed to lie on Asger's behalf. Rashid had given a statement, and he was going to be Asger's witness the day after.
We can see that Asger and Rashid had a very close relationship, considering Rashid would do something off-duty for Asger (going to Michael Berg's house).
When Asger told Rashid that he didn't have to lie for him, Rashid was very up in arms about it, because he'd already given his statement. If Rashid went back on his word, he might've been charged for perjury. I have no doubt that Rashid was just as much as a power-hungry cop as Asger was.
This interaction also led me to think that Asger is rash and a little selfish. When he pulled Rashid into his mess, he was implicating him as well. Asger pulling out of their story left Rashid as collateral damage. He couldn't just "pull out" because it would hurt all of the people around him, though of course, Rashid himself did a wrong thing by lying for Asger as well.
I think Rashid was sort of a representation of what Asger was like before.
Themes
Guilt
As per the name of the movie, I was looking for themes of justice and guilt in this movie.
With regards to guilt, I think the story shed more light on how much responsibility emergency dispatchers have on preventing crimes, and not letting criminals get away.
In this movie, if Asger had no talked Iben down from the bridge, he would've had a death on his hands. Technically, Michael sort of had the situation in control. He was just going to take an upset Iben to the psychiatric hospital to get her help. Asger's involvement would have killed Iben, since it was upon his instruction that she escaped from Michael.
As well, Asger interpreting the story from Iben incorrectly meant that all of the dispatch might've gone to the wrong places. If the patrol car actually caught Michael, they might've shot him, if they were as trigger-happy as other cops. As well, Officer Tim Anderson who'd visited Mathilde was the one who said that Michael had killed Oliver. Well, he said something like "he cut him open," which led Asger to believe that Michael was the killer, when in reality, Tim had just made an assumption.
So basically, cops have a lot of responsibility in looking at situations neutrally and critically.
Justice
Right from the start, Asger was pretty judgy about people who called him, and though he still patched them through to emergency services, he would give them shit for it. For example, when the guy got mugged by a prostitute, Asger judged the guy and told patrol cars to make him wait a bit.
The emergency dispatchers are also carrying out justice. As mentioned in the above section about guilt, we see that they do have an impact on the way a situation plays out.
There is also a mismatch between justice and morality. As mentioned, Asger had asked Bo and then Rashid to break into Michael's house if necessary to find clues. This was technically illegal, but what if it was in extenuating circumstances? I think this would be one where breaking in would have been forgiven.
Bureaucracy
Emergency dispatch was just like any other job. People had shifts, people had responsibilities, there was a chain of command, etc.
One way in which bureaucracy was shown was when Asger was speaking to people in other departments. Sometimes, when he called other people, he would start with small talk, even though he was technically dealing with emergency situations. But small talk was how you built connections, right?
There was some bureaucratic frustration when Asger was speaking with the North Zealand dispatcher. He wanted to have more control over the patrol cars who were searching for Michael's white van, but the dispatcher told him to stay in his own lane. For Asger, who was very anxious about the situation, it was difficult for him to leave the situation in other people's hands, but he had to do that, because everybody was assigned to their own tasks.
Custody rights
This was only touched on briefly via Iben and Michael's relationship. Iben got custody of the kids, probably because Michael had a criminal record, but we saw in the movie that she was not a fit mother at all. How did this happen? Was it the criminal record, or was it simply because the courts thought that kids should stay with the mother?
Overall
This was a very good, very tight movie. The story was tight, but I thought that the themes were well-explored in a way where I didn't feel like I was getting punched in the face with his apparent it was. I would definitely recommend this movie.