Starring: Dreama Walker, Pat Healy, Ann Dowd
Whilst working her shift at a local fast food restaurant,
Becky (Walker) is called into the backroom by her manager (Dowd). Becky is
considered to be a model employee, but a call has been made to the restaurant
by a man (Healy) claiming to be a police officer who claims that Becky has
stolen money from a customer. As Becky tries to plead her innocence, the man on
the other side of the phone continues to question her as well as telling her to
do things that cause Becky humiliation and degradation.
At the opening of Compliance, there’s a statement that
claims that the story is based on actual documented crime cases of prank phone
calls that have lead into sexual assaults. The film also acknowledges the
influence of the Milgram experiment (where test subjects were told to
administer an increasingly severe electric shock to a person behind a partition
if they answered a question incorrectly; the test subjects not knowing the
entire test was simulated in order to show how people will often follow orders,
no matter how severe, in certain situations). Still, as much as Compliance
strives and possibly succeeds in realism, the fundamental issue with the story
is that it’s not believable. It’s very much the case that reality is stranger
than fiction, and I believe that most, if not all, of this film is at least
inspired by real crimes but there are many times when you question why the
characters don’t call the officer’s bluff or at least get suspicious, although
this point is addressed. The film does have a sense of dread, aided by the
claustrophobic setting and use of the camera and whilst Pat Healy delivers a
decent performance of a realistic form of villainy, when we see him in the
flesh, certain acts take away the malice (one particular scene shows him on the
phone whilst preparing a sandwich). This film will disturb more than a few
people, but I doubt it will be many people’s favourite film.
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