Just because a film is based on a true story doesn’t make it convincing. Zobel’s story screams at us that the crime his film depicts over 90 gruelling minutes actually happened, but that doesn’t make it any more palatable. In fact it makes the task of watching this thing, through what feels like four hours, complicit in the terrible creepy crime it depicts.
A fast food outlet gets a phone call from someone claiming to be Officer Daniels’ from the police. He claims that a young cashier, Becky (Walker), has stolen some cash. He tells the duty manager, Sandra (Dowd), to take Becky into a room and hold her. He then makes Sandra, her co-workers and even her fiancée perform increasingly degrading acts on Becky, all in the name of finding the missing cash.
These include strip-searching the girl, making her do star jumps and worse. The call goes on for what seems like forever, and at no point do the workers suspect the policeman’ is in fact a pervert. When they ask Daniels when the police are going to arrive he claims they are searching Becky’s house for drugs.
Put this film together with the recent docu-drama The Imposter and you’d have some pretty overwhelming evidence that the majority of Americans are unbelievably naïve and stupid, and will believe anyone in a uniform or who claims to be a cop. If that’s the aim, then mission accomplished, but it seems an utterly cynical and dark exercise and to continually point to the this really happened’ banner doesn’t excuse cynicism on this level.
The only real plusses are the performances of those actors who willingly put themselves through this stuff. Walker in particular is exceptional, looking more and more frightened as the nightmare she is put through gets ever darker. Naked for much of the film, it’s a tribute to her that she manages to retain her dignity as long as she does. Dowd too is good as the frankly unbelievably dumb manager, easily seduced by a phone call and all too willing to do as she is told by someone she has never met or seen.
Overall verdict: It sets itself up as an issue movie but all too quickly lapses into a mixture of ludicrous hyperbole and sheer tastelessness. The visual griminess is matched by the utterly depressing nature of the film, which goes way too far. Grim.
Reviewer Mike Martin