- Director:
Anthony Waller - AMG Rating:
- Genre: Crime
- Movie Type: Crime Thriller
- Themes: Fathers and Sons, Dangerous Friends, Class Differences
- Main Cast: Bill Pullman, Gabrielle Anwar, Devon Sawa, Angela Featherstone, Joanne Whalley
- Release Year: 2000
- Country: US/UK/CA
- Run Time: 107 minutes
Plot
Defense lawyer and all-around sleaze Callum Crane (Bill Pullman) has a nice wife (Joanne Whalley), two daughters by his wife's first marriage, and an obscenely perfect house. He also has a drinking problem and a penchant for sexual assault. The second proclivity is on ample display when Crane meets Sophie (Gabrielle Anwar), the new secretary. After a brief flirtation, they go back to Sophie's apartment, where Crane proceeds to rape her. Within a few days of her rape, Sophie is fired, and Crane is appointed to a federal judgeship. Understandably outraged, Sophie demands that he resign and threatens to go to the police or newspapers with her story. Meanwhile, somewhere on the wrong side of the tracks, car thief Nat (Devon Sawa) has just been released from prison and discovers that his real father is none other than Crane. Deciding that it's high time he met his long-lost father, Nat searches for Crane and finds him just in time to save him from a mugging. Crane believes that his would-be savior is a hardened criminal, and he offers him the contract to kill Sophie. Coincidentally enough, Nat only knows two people in town: Sophie's roommate, Tanya (Angela Featherstone), and Sophie herself. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie GuideReview
There are no fewer than ten outrageous coincidences that keep this potboiler moving, but for some exasperating reason, they are forgiven. The Guilty is a guilty pleasure that aspires to be something socially significant, as if written by Michael Crichton and starring Michael Douglas. But Disclosure it is not, and its attempt at loftiness is what adds to its hilarious cheesiness -- this is Grade-A B-cinema that is never boring, never predictable (well, mostly never), and always howlingly ironic. Bill Pullman looks more lost than ever here, but he soldiers on, bravely marching through scenes that have him being noble, wary, and frightened at the same time. Gabrielle Anwar is an adequate victim but strangely turns into a quasi-villain by the film's end. The show is stolen by newcomer Devon Sawa as the high-strung ex-con kid who chances into a plot involving 1) his estranged father who was recently appointed a federal judge, 2) his new would-be girlfriend's roommate, who was raped by his father, 3) his father getting robbed by a cartoonish gang of thugs, 4) his psychotic best friend finding the assignment to kill the roommate and deciding to do it himself -- the list of coincidences goes on. But knowing all this only enhances the utter joy of watching.~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
Cast
- Bill Pullman - Callum Crane
- Gabrielle Anwar - Sophie Lennon
- Devon Sawa - Nathan Corrigan
Angela Featherstone - Tanya Duncan- Joanne Whalley - Nathalie Crane
