Why has Jake Gyllenhaal not won an Oscar yet? That is the question I feel like I have to ask myself every time I see another one of his performances. From movies like Enemy to Nightcrawler to Nocturnal Animals to even Spider-Man: Far From Home, this man gives it his all every time he’s on screen, and yet he somehow only has one darn Oscar nomination to show for it!
Just another example of Gyllenhaal’s work came in the recently-released Netflix movie, The Guilty, a remake of the 2018 Danish film of the same name. And, while I haven’t had the honor of seeing that particular movie, I can personally say that this remake of the film kept me on the edge of my seat until the final minutes, and is definitely worth watching.
The reason why is due to a few things: the plot, the intense phone conversations that happen all throughout, the twists that happen in the midst of the movie (and they’re some pretty shocking twists, trust me), and Jake Gyllenhaal’s amazing performance. Throughout the film, you can just feel Gyllenhaal’s nerves, his anger, and his anguish as he works to rescue a woman whom he thinks has been abducted by her ex-husband.
His performance is just that powerful. You feel like you can’t root for him towards the start of the movie because he kinda acts like an ass, but, as you progress forward into the film, you start to understand why he is that way to begin with, until the intense conclusion where it is revealed what he did that got him into this position in the first place. And, as a result, you are sucked in and right there with him on this journey. You want him to get the job done and save this woman from whatever it is that she’s going through.
This film certainly isn’t for the faint of heart, especially when it comes to the rather emotionally tense climax, but, if you’re looking for another example that Jake Gyllenhaal is an Oscar-worthy actor who is more than capable of carrying a movie (I mean, we do spend the entire film with his character), I would definitely say that The Guilty is a great place to start.
