Many stars are currently pivoting to more TV and streaming work as AppleTV+ is becoming one of the more prestigious streamers to attract stars. Harrison Ford, Henry Cavill, Gary Oldman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep and Edward Norton are just SOME of the names coming to the service or already appearing in projects for AppleTV+ and they’re about to add another Oscar nominee to their ranks. 

According to Deadline, Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler, Brokeback Mountain) is set to lead the dramatic limited series, Presumed Innocent for AppleTV+. He will also act as an executive producer on the project alongside J.J. Abrams (Lost, Star Trek) and his Bad Robot banner. Additionally, David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies, The Practice) will write and act as Showrunner on the series for the streamer. Presumed Innocent is based on a 1987 novel that was also adapted as a feature film in 1990 starring Harrison Ford telling the story of an awful murder that stirs controversy within the Chicago Prosecution Office as there is a presumption that one of their own committed the crime. 

Gyllenhaal will play Rusty Sabich in the series who is described as a passionate prosecutor who is accused of killing a close colleague when evidence begins to point to him as the premiere suspect. The series being reimagined by Kelley, will explore obsession, sex, politics and the limits of love as the accusations start to tear apart Rusty from his family. 

The Oscar and Tony-nominated actor most recently voiced the lead character in Disney’s Strange World and will next appear in Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant alongside Antony Starr and Emily Beecham. Additionally, Gyllenhaal has a ton in the works including the video game film adaptation of The Division for Netflix which is based on the famous Tom Clancy franchise. However, none may be more highly anticipated than the remake of Road House. The latter will star Gyllenhaal filling the role originally played by the late, great Patrick Swayze. Road House will be helmed by Doug Liman and also star Daniela Melchior, Billy Magnussen and mark the big-screen debut of MMA superstar, Conor McGregor.

Genre:

Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Release Date:

January 14, 2022

Director:

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett

Cast:

Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette

Plot Summary:

Despite having given some of the best performances of the past 20 years, Jake Gyllenhaal has only been recognized by the Oscars once after receiving a nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 2006 for Brokeback Mountain. His fantastic performances in Nightcrawler, Prisoners, Southpaw and so many other films went unnoticed by the Academy but now once again Jake Gyllenhaal is back in his latest film The Guilty. Whilst he’s quite unlikely to receive any awards recognition for his most recent role, Gyllenhaal is once againproving that he really is one of the greatest actors working today.

The Guilty is an American film directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) and is a remake of the 2018 Danish film of the same name. The entire film takes place over the course of a single morning, and it follows Gyllenhaal’s call operator Joe Baylor in a 911 dispatch call centre. Joe receives a call from a woman named Emily who acts as if she’s talking to her young daughter and through asking her a series of yes or no questions, Joe determines that she’s been taken and is in danger.

Trapped at his desk in the call centre, Baylor must solve the issue and find the truths, rescuing Emily, all through a series of phone calls. Almost the entire film takes place from within the call centre and it’s a very interesting perspective to see in a film. I’ve not seen the original Danish film so I can’t compare the two and any differences they might have but it’s quite refreshing to see a crime thriller film confined to just one location.

Normally in a film like this the protagonist would be trying to solve the case by travelling to different places and talking to different people but instead Baylor can’t go anywhere and has to solve it all from his desk. There’s a point where he’s phoning up a police officer to go to Emily’s house to check on her kids and to search for any clues as to where she might be but instead of taking the audience to her house, we too are confined with Baylor in the call centre, feeling his frustration when he can’t get an officer to go.

The whole film is very tense and has you on the edge of your seat throughout. The direction from Fuqua is clear and he gets such a high level of suspense out of the situation. Not only with us fearing if Emily will make it out alive and if Baylor will save her in time but also through some of the subplots. Joe gets a couple of phone calls from journalists asking about his side of the story ahead of ‘tomorrow’. It’s not until near the end of the film where we find out what’s happening ‘tomorrow’ and what Baylor had done wrong and whilst perhaps it does add a bit of a dampener and it doesn’t entirely sit right with me, it creates another layer of tension and adds to the suspense.

Jake Gyllenhaal really is excellent and the standout in The Guilty. The film does have an impressive voice cast with Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough and Paul Dano all voicing characters over the phone, but Gyllenhaal really is outstanding. There are very few actors that can demand your full attention for 90 minutes like he does. The film is almost entirely just Gyllenhaal acting from his desk but you forget about this fairly quickly because of the way that Gyllenhaal takes control of every single scene. Seeing him react to both sides of the conversation over the phone rather than cutting backwards and forwards between the two ends is so enthralling to watch because of his excellent performance.

There are times when the film does begin to drag and when we do learn a bit more about the trouble Baylor got into at work, it needed to be developed a bit more to be wholly satisfying but nonetheless The Guilty is a riveting film propelled by Jake Gyllenhaal’s fantastic acting.

The Guilty premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and is released on Netflix on October 1^st.