A man walks up in the bed of a woman (one night stand, girlfriend, we are not sure). Unfortunately he realizes that the warm feeling he has is not contentment but actually the remaining warmth from the urine that he has released at some point during the night. With his underwear and the bedding stained, he slips out of bed and tries to work out how he is going to clean this up without his still sleeping partner finding out.
As a narrative this film is very contained because it really doesn't go much beyond the outline I describe above, nor does it go to comedic excess for the sake of laughs. Instead it collapses the world inwards to focus on the very specific pain, stress and fear of one man who is about to be ridiculed and shamed for wetting the bed – and not even his own bed. The film puts the viewer right into this situation and lets us feel that even though for the majority of viewers this is a situation that will not have occurred recently. As a result the film is surprisingly tense; it is billed as a comedy but although the situation has funny aspects, it is really taut and thrilling with the character sneaking around, all the noises louder than ever and things like a vibrating phone causing everything to freeze. I liked that the film also took a second to remind us what was at stake, with the character watching a happy "non-bed-wetting" couple outside the window and him knowing he will never be them unless he resolves this.
The direction in and around the confines of the small flat is very well done because the film looks good but also plays it for drama and tension. The use of music works in some regards but not others; I liked the jump edits from music to silence but I thought the film generally worked better without the music since the silence and focus on other sounds worked better – also special mention for the sound editing here too. Guilty is a very self-contained little film but it does what it does well, producing a darkly comic situation and delivering it with tension and drama.
As a narrative this film is very contained because it really doesn't go much beyond the outline I describe above, nor does it go to comedic excess for the sake of laughs. Instead it collapses the world inwards to focus on the very specific pain, stress and fear of one man who is about to be ridiculed and shamed for wetting the bed – and not even his own bed. The film puts the viewer right into this situation and lets us feel that even though for the majority of viewers this is a situation that will not have occurred recently. As a result the film is surprisingly tense; it is billed as a comedy but although the situation has funny aspects, it is really taut and thrilling with the character sneaking around, all the noises louder than ever and things like a vibrating phone causing everything to freeze. I liked that the film also took a second to remind us what was at stake, with the character watching a happy "non-bed-wetting" couple outside the window and him knowing he will never be them unless he resolves this.
The direction in and around the confines of the small flat is very well done because the film looks good but also plays it for drama and tension. The use of music works in some regards but not others; I liked the jump edits from music to silence but I thought the film generally worked better without the music since the silence and focus on other sounds worked better – also special mention for the sound editing here too. Guilty is a very self-contained little film but it does what it does well, producing a darkly comic situation and delivering it with tension and drama.
