The 2018 Danish film Den Skylidge is not one I have seen or even heard of, so I had no idea what to expect from this American remake.
Set entirely in an emergency services control room, it stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Joe, a police officer, suspended from normal duty and forced to man the phones. He clearly resents having to do the job and his mind is more focused on his disciplinary hearing the next day until he gets a call from a woman who is being abducted.
I am not going to give away any more of the plot as I do not want to spoil the terrific twist towards the end of the film. Skilled director Antoine Fuqua manages to convey tremendous tension from a script that largely consists of people talking on the phone, something we only see from Joe’s end. Gyllenhaal is brilliant as the deeply troubled officer, and it was good to see Stumptown’s Adrian Martinez as a co-worker. The voice cast is star-studded including Ethan Hawke, Riley Keogh, Peter Sarsgaard, and Paul Dano.
I found Joe’s personal backstory a lot less interesting than the central plot, and felt it held back the movie from moving at a barrelling pace at times. Having said that, it does tie-in nicely with the main story towards the end and this is one of the better recent offerings on Netflix.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10