THE GUILTY
US, 2000, 112 minutes, Colour.
Bill Pullman, Devon Sawa, Gabrielle Anwar, Angela Featherstone, Joanne Whalley.
Directed by Anthony Waller.
The Guilty is a film that has the courage and the indulgence of all its convictions. It uses every device in the book to offer a ripe melodrama.
Bill Pullman portrays a corrupt lawyer who rapes his new secretary (Gabrielle Anwar) and then is made a judge. She wants an apology which he refuses. She threatens to expose him and he arranges for her murder. However, he arranges the murder with a young man who has just found out that the judge is his father. He has also encountered the secretary and her room-mate. It all gets complicated when he refuses to even open the envelope with the information about the murder – but one of his friends who is in debt to drug dealers does and actually commits the murder. The young man is then framed, is helped to escape by the judge, who also sets up the drug dealers to murder the murderer. In the meantime, the judge’s wife is having an affair with his partner which the judge discovers and orders her out. There is a final irony where the judge is undone. The film is the equivalent of a quick airport read, enjoying itself and helping the audience anticipate every move with an emotional response (rather than an intellectual response).
Direction is by Anthony Waller who made the strange thriller Mute Witness with Alec Guinness.
1. The popularity of this kind of melodrama? The ingredients of murder, sexual betrayal, coincidence, hidden identities? The film enjoying and indulging in all these conventions?
2. The city setting, the affluent world of the lawyer, the courts, his home? The contrast with Nathan’s home, his living in the old abandoned building, the industrial wasteland? The apartments? The contrast between rich and poor? The musical score?
3. The title, to whom did it refer, why?
4. The focus on Callum Crane, his work in the court, the libel case, his getting huge money for his client even though she didn’t deserve it? His partner and the consideration of him as unscrupulous and amoral? His tense relationship with his wife, her children? The phone call, his being appointed a judge? His self-satisfaction, his drinking?
5. At work, his impatience in the court, wanting a Shakespeare quotation, angry with his assistant, with Sophie? Finding her still at work, inviting her out, her leading him on, the return to her apartment? Her refusing, his raping her? The consequences for him, trying to ignore it, his finally firing her through his assistant? Her reaction, her telling Tanya but not identifying him? Her being fired? Her decision to expose him, the confrontation?
6. Nathan Storey, coming out of jail, Denis Emilio, the stolen car, crashing, stealing? His going home to his mother? His clash with his stepfather? Finding out the truth about the judge being his father? His wanting to meet him? His seeing him, saving him from the muggers in the parking area? The judge’s response, realising that he was not fond of the police, having only a short time before Sophie’s confrontation, giving him the information to kill her?
7. Nathan, his encounter with Tanya, friendship, the crash and his letting her off? The meal, going to the apartment, Sophie wanting out? His camping in the corridor? His friendship with Tanya, the antagonism of her boyfriend and his not letting her in? His taking Sophie to dinner? Angela being hurt?
8. His not wanting to commit the crime, putting the money down the drain? Leo and the standover tactics of the drug dealers? His getting the money, the information, his decision to kill Sophie? Denis and his being upset, ringing Sophie, the message for Nathan?
9. Sophie, her not wanting Nathan to come in, locking him out, his beating at the door and the witness seeing him? Her not letting Leo in, his getting into her apartment? Her mother’s phone call? The confrontation, Leo killing her? Nathan and his being upset with Sophie’s involvement, not believing her, running to save her, unable to, being accused of the murder?
10. The judge, everything seeming to be in order, his speculation about resigning, reading of her death? Seeing his wife having the affair? Ordering her out? His wanting to burn the tape? His meetings with Nathan, the tape, helping him, Nathan throwing him over the banister and threatening him? His going to see Denis, rehearsing him in a message for the police? Leo and the confrontation, his setting up the drug dealers to kill Leo, their killing him?
11. The police, Nathan’s arrest, interrogations, the evidence? Nathan and the discussion with Tanya? His understanding the truth, his confronting the judge?
12. The judge and his wanting to save Nathan, his rehearsing Denis, Denis’s speech to the police? Nathan and his getting away after being let out, the reunion with Tanya and her forgiving him?
13. Everything in order, the judge and his career, sentencing a man to ten years for rape? His wife, her awkwardness with him, the affair with his friend? His ordering her out – and her telling him that she had actually posted the letter to the DA – and the police arriving to arrest him?
14. The melodramatic aspects, stereotypical characters and situations, coincidences – all done with a heightened and emotional involvement that is pop entertainment?
