Directed by: Craig Zobel
Starring: Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker, and Tim Healy
Plot: A prank phone call to a restaurant leads to a sexual assault.
Review:
The premise seems like such an improbable series of events. Someone calls a fast food restaurant claiming to be a police officer. He uses a very broad description to get the manager to pinpoint a young, attractive, female employee and then claims that she is a thief. To find the stolen goods, the caller convinces the manager to perform a strip search. Who in their right mind would listen to the caller? What victim wouldn’t remove them from this situation from the very beginning? It is so absurd, yet according to the movie, there have been over 70 reported incidents. This movie is based on a specific incident at a MacDonald’s that went too far and made national headlines.
With this premise, sophomore director, Craig Zobel, depicts a frightening image of human faults. He has quite an eye for the terrifying. He has these slow-moving graceful camera shots that very expressively show us what we need to see. Our own imagination does the rest. They are fitting for the equally slow-moving plot.
Zobel also gets the very best from most of his cast. It is very natural performances from those inside the storage room. You can see the psychological damage bury victim, Dreama Walker, further and further as the movie goes on. As her main tormentor, Sandra, Ann Dowd has an equally if not more impressive performance. She has an almost maternal sense to her character. She wants to be friends with everyone, but her overwhelming desire to do the right thing frustrates her younger subordinates. It is sad to see her first be hesitant but eventually (and confidently) bow to the will of the man on the phone. I feel like any other actress in the role would go for the unsympathetic, but Dowd finds the sympathetic in the guilty character. On the phone is Tim Healy who some will remember from The Innkeepers. He is a smooth operator and super sleezy on the phone. When the camera changes to Healy’s side of the phone, it just sends shivers down your spine to see how much entertainment this seemingly regular guy is getting from the crap he is putting these people through. The only weak spot in the whole movie is the brutal stereotypical angry black diva. She only has a few lines, but she makes excruciatingly cartoonish deliveries.
Dreama in nothing but an apron
This movie has an almost Hitchcockian presence. It is very slow burning kind of thriller, and it is a lot more about people just talking while some of the most brutal stuff happens off screen. The most frightening part of the whole movie is how stupid some people can be. Logic should never allow this sort of thing to ever happen, but it has already happened in reality. Once it gets going, there is just too much momentum for it to stop. It is almost like the Stamford Prison Experiment. Once you can rationalize your action for the first incident, it becomes easier and easier.
Compliance is one of the most twisted movies I have ever seen, and it barely has any kind of gore or violence. It is excellent at manipulating your emotions. It left me feeling bad hours later. The replay value is obviously very low though.
Rating: 8/10
