Compliance

COMPLIANCE

Director : Craig Zobel

Year : 2013

Genre : Drama 

Rating : ****

Telling a terrifying story about the dangers of conformity and the abuse of power by authority figures, 'Compliance' takes us into a dark world full of betrayal, distrust and humiliation while all the while being shrouded in the bitter air of reality. Based on the true case of a woman who was sexually assaulted by her friends due a prank phone call from the supposed 'police', 'Compliance' is an extremely harrowing look at the destructive and forceful nature of conformity. Acted superbly, scripted in a very believable way and directed with a sense of care and respect for the subject matter, 'Compliance' is one of the better, if not more disturbing thriller/dramas released this year.

Sandra, the manager of a small sandwich shop is having a very bad day; the freezer doors have been left open overnight so thousands of dollars worth of food has spoiled and many of her staff have fallen sick due to a contagious bug going around. But when she gets a phone call from someone who is supposedly a police officer saying that a young member of her staff has stolen money from the handbag of a customer, things suddenly take a turn for the worst. At the orders of the authoritative voice on the end of the phone, Sandra takes Becky (the accused) to the back room where she is held until the cops come to pick her up. Once there, the prank caller uses Sandra's gullibility against her and soon she is made to strip search Becky and take her clothes from her; leaving the poor girl naked and humiliated. But as the voice becomes more sinister, so does the levels of the sexual harrassment and as the orders become more and more extreme, the staff begin to think that the voice on the other end of the phone may not be who he says he is.

With a restrained camera technique, little use of a non - diegetic soundtrack and a very realistic screenplay that seems almost improvisational, director Craig Zobel manages to create an air of deep intensity and perverse urgency with ease. By giving each character a sense of purpose and place in the narrative, he is able to give us a much more rounded atmosphere and this helps us to become more involved in the horrific story and the terrible events that unfold in front of our eyes. Daring us to avert our gaze, Zobel shows us in quite graphic detail the humiliation and utter despair felt by his central victim and thanks to both a powerful, but reserved performance from Dreama Walker, the director manages to make the obviously averting material strangely engaging. Obviously the sexual humiliation is extremely distressing to watch and there were many times throughout the movie where I refused to believe that anything like this could happen in real life. But having researched the case after watching the movie, I was astonished to find out that not only is this film based on a true case, but over 70 similar incidents have been reported in the USA. It is a terrifying thought to  think that someone would actually spend their time destroying the lives of others for their own personal amusement and I just hope that this astonishing film will alert others to the danger signs in the future. 

The cast are universally excellent; especially the brilliant Ann Dowd who plays the gullible but tormented store manager who obeys every order that she is given. It is clear that she is naturally a good person, but like many others before her, she can't help but follow the instructions given by a supposed authority figure. It is through her facial expressions and her performance that we see the damage that this incident is causing to all of those around it and while Becky may be the true victim, we still feel sympathy for the naive and obedient Sandra, who only wants to do good. Dreama Walker is heartbreakingly vulnerable as the innocent victim who is abused beyond anybody's belief and thanks to a quiet, reserved but strong performance, she manages to give what could be a very typical 'damsel in distress' role a lot of character and depth. Unfortunately, Zobel does show us graphic frontal nudity and it this aspect that did kill the movie for me a bit. We know through the orders given by the mysterious voice what is about to happen, so nudity and sexual abuse is implied. Implication can sometimes be a great way of not having to resort to showing us anything explicit, but sadly the director insists on showing us full frontal nudity more than a few times and this only makes 'Compliance' that little bit more repulsive. I myself have a massive aversion to any film that depicts sexual abuse in any form of detail and was hoping that Zobel would have the sense to frame his shots differently and use tighter zooms as to not to reveal any naked flesh, but alas, we are shown bare breasts and buttocks quite a few times. Therefore, I must give credit to the young actress who seems to be perfectly comfortable being exposed and while her character may be extremely humiliated, the actress herself appears to be completely at ease. 

The voice at the end of the phone is that of Pat Healy and unfortunately, it is with character where Zobel makes another mistake. For the first third of the film, we never see the face of the man on the other end of the line and this really helps to give the voice a sense of mystery, threat and above all anonymity. We begin to paint a picture of the prank caller in our own heads; what he looks like, where he is, where he is getting all of this information. However within 40 minutes, the director reveals the identity of the man to us and to me, this is a huge narrative misstep. Any sense of fear or dread is immediately drained away when we see the visage of this prankster, who we see is just a regular man sitting in a chair giggling to himself. Why ruin the sense of anonymity and threat that had been so masterfully created in the beginning third of the movie? It is the equivalent of showing who is behind the sniper rifle in 'Phone Booth' or the voices on the end of the phone belong to in 'Buried'. By keeping us in the small storeroom with the main victims, we become more involved in their story and the way in which this horrible experience is affecting them. By cutting back and forth to a man making a sandwich, the energy created in the little room is immediately vanquished and unfortunately, that sense of dread is lost for the rest of the film. I'm not saying that this completely ruined the entire movie for me, but it certainly lost it's edge.

It is a shame that Zobel made these mistakes in telling the story because 'Compliance' was quickly finding it's way onto my top 10 films of the year. It is acted beautifully and the overwhelming air of dread and underlying threat was masterfully created thanks to  great direction and wonderful camera work. Welcomed with a great deal of controversy at the Sundance Film Festival, the first showings of 'Compliance' were met with several walkouts and shouting contests during the question and answer sessions. It is clear watching the film why this visceral reaction was felt and there were many times throughout were I found myself looking away from the screen. It is an extremely distressing movie and one that should only be watched by mature audiences, but as adult dramas go, 'Compliance' is certainly one of the better ones.