Compliance (2012)

Genres

Drama, Thriller

Director

Craig Zobel

Country

USA

Cast

Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker, Pat Healy, Bill Camp, Philip Ettinger, James McCaffrey, Ashlie Atkinson

Storyline

What started as a normal Friday at a fast food restaurant becomes Becky's (Dreama Walker) worst nightmare as she is accused of stealing from a customer and she gets sexually humiliated by a man (Pat Healy) on the phone who claims to be a police officer. 

Opinion

I've heard of Compliance for the first time last June and I wasn't very thrilled to watch it. The reason? Not the storyline itself, but the fact that it's based on true events. I eventually got around it, and Dell was right, this is probably one of the most disturbing movies I've seen.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time to talk about the plot because there's really nothing to say. It's pretty simple and yet twisted, and the fact that it's based on true events made it more engaging. The movie itself was a little tedious because there wasn't much happening, just some repetitive dialogue, and it was very hard to sit through because of its matter, but I guess I kept watching because I needed to know those crimes were not left unpunished.

But Compliance is much more than its story. It does show the stupidity of Americans (but I guess this could have happened anywhere else) and how little educated some/a lot of them are, and uses its characters - fast food manager Sandra and her fiancé - to portray the dark side of the United States, an ignorant nation where people just take orders, without posing any question, even when they have no idea who's giving them the others. They just lower their heads and do whatever they are told to do. They are just unable to think for themselves.

On the other hand, there's Becky who represents the uneducated side of America. She is the victim of such a dysfunctional system. She represents all those people who don't have a voice because judged way too superficially.

Ultimately, this film will make you feel disgusted, angry and sad at the same time, but it's worth checking it out, especially for the performances.