Compliance (2012) is the kind of film that drives you nuts. Why are these characters so naive, so idiotic? Oh, wait, they're based on real-life people? This really happened?
Your view of humanity diminishes second by second.
At an Ohio Chick-Fil-A-like store, a harried manager (terrifically played by Ann Dowd) receives a phone caller from "Officer Daniels," a cop informing her that one of her employees, blonde-haired, rather sweet Becky (Dreama Walker, Don't Trust the B- in Apt. 23) has stolen from a customer. The officer orders the manager, Sandra, to isolate Becky in a back room until the cops can come. Officer Daniels stays on the phone with Sandra and commands her to strip-search Becky.
The demands get increasingly, ickily worse.
The movie reveals its big twist about halfway through though if you're aware of the real-life incident (which happened at a Kentucky McDonald's) or have read anything about the movie, you pretty much know what it is.
So what to make of the second half of the film and the queasy sense of complicit guilt the director, Craig Zobel, tries to illicit from the viewer? I thought it verged on sadistic at times, particularly in how we keep seeing so much of Officer Daniels and his smirky reactions? Are we supposed to be getting off on this too?
We get the points: many of us believe people are who they say are, particularly authority figures. We have a blind allegiance to those who represent the law, power.
But I still couldn't help looking down on these characters, and that's never a good thing in a movie. Provocative and certainly watchable (and short), the film just makes you feel bad.
(The end credits tell us that similar incidents happened over 70 times in 30 states!)
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Happy birthday, Mich!
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