The film might have still been bad without them, and you could argue these aren’t technically “plot holes”, but here are four inexplicably dumb elements of ‘The Guilty‘ that help seal its life-sentence to movie prison.
1. California wildfires backdrop
The film immediately makes the point that it’s set during raging California wildfires, then seems to just as quickly dismiss this reality. It’s mentioned in a couple of phone calls early on, including when a highway patrol operator chastises Jake Gyllenhaal’s character for wasting her time in the midst of the fires, then at some point it’s as though the fires just don’t exist, and every single emergency operator in the film moves with the urgency of a retired couple on vacation, let alone in an active crisis.
2. The lack of urgency on behalf of the operators
We know we just mentioned this in the last point, but it really needs one of its own. While we imagine the world of emergency operators is not exempt from goofing off or engaging in ill-timed office humor, the extent that this lackadaisical workplace attitude goes on in “The Guilty”, particularly during raging wildfires, is just over-the-top and painful to watch.
3. Jake Gyllenhaal literally kills an innocent man and it’s like nothing happened
No, we aren’t talking about the shoddily revealed ending where he pleads guilty to manslaughter. We’re talking about the ex-husband, and father, that Joe convinces Emily to smash over the head with a rock.
The first 75% of the film is an exercise in tricking Joe, and by extension the audience, that Henry Fisher is a murderous, kidnapping bad guy, as it really tries to setup that big “twist” ending. When all is said and done, however, all we know about Henry is that he has some vague assault charges in his past, which are never explored in any depth, and that he and Emily are divorced.
As frantic as the events that unfold in the movie are, it actually seems like Henry has a good heart and wants the best for his ex-wife and his son.
At the very least, he did not seem to deserve having his head smashed in with a brick.
Of course, in constantly jumping to insane conclusions and taking drastic measures fashion, Joe doesn’t know the true situation when he gives the insanely bold suggestion that Emily prepare a head smashing sneak attack from the back of the van. (Nor does he bother to wonder what the size/strength differential might be between Emily and Henry)
It’s literally as though the film purposefully tries to forget a major aspect of its own twist, and that it hopes its audience does too.
4. How is the baby still alive…?
Sorry this one gets slightly morbid, but during the feel-goody ending, where we forget about the dead guy who was smashed by a brick, and discover that Oliver, the stabbed baby, is actually alive in a hospital ICU — well are we actually supposed to believe that?
The stabbing sounded pretty horrific, given that Emily describes it as removing “the snakes” from her son’s stomach, along with the fact that both she and her other son end up covered in blood. Then of course you have Henry who is clearly convinced beyond a doubt that the baby is dead, since that’s what kicks off this whole psychotic escapade.
You would think, given how worked up he is about the death of his son, he would have made 100% sure he was actually dead.
Not only is Oliver not dead, but he somehow continued to survive through whatever intense bleeding and lacerations he suffered for at least an hour, if not much longer, without any medical attention.
Hey, miraculous things can happen, but we aren’t buying it in the slightest. Nor are we buying the rest of this film.
Read our review of The Guilty.