Compliance Film Review

Compliance - "My name is officer Daniels"

Sadly the events that take place in this film are entirely identical to what actually happened to these unfortunate fast-food workers in real life. This is based on a true story of a fast-food store (McDonald's) receiving a prank phone call in Kentucky USA from a man claiming he was "Officer Scott" of the local police department. The dramatization of the real life events make for a very disturbing film about human behavior and how we concede to authority. Becky played by Dreama Walker is having a normal day at the cash register serving customers when her store manager Sandra played by the terrific Ann Dowd receives the phone call from the perverted "Officer Daniels" played by Pat Healy. Daniels accuses Becky of stealing money from a customer she had served earlier in the day and without question Sandra the store manager begins to interrogate Becky. Very quickly the situation descends into a nightmare of submission and obedience to "Officer Daniels".

The script is what makes this film seem so disturbingly real, every line of dialogue isn't a Shakespearean work of art for the audience to marvel at. Collectively however what the script does is portray natural human conversation, small talk about the weather, your schedule for the day, relationships, very everyday normal dialogue between co-workers. Every performance in this film is completely grounded in reality from the wonderful direction of Craig Zobel. Even if it's a background store worker who has 3 lines of dialogue it all seems very real. There are long sequences of sustained slow motion that not only add this dream like quality to the film but also a sense of dread as to whats to come. You know this situation is only going to get worse, there are never any still shot's and whenever the camera is focused on Becky the protagonist it will slowly shift downwards as the life drains from her face.

The demands of Officer Daniels become increasingly disturbing as the film progresses. He is insistent that Becky has hidden stolen money on her person, which eventually leads to a strip search & it doesn't stop there, I won't go into more details about that as it would spoil the experience towards these grotesque scenes. This is not an entertainment film and I've never seen more people walk out of the cinema. I counted 9 people get up and leave and each of them were women who were undoubtedly offended by the subject matter of the film and how this female is treated by men. It's not a feminist vehicle film to open the worlds eyes about the objectification of women as Becky is very attractive nor is it a misogynistic film that is condescending. It's sadly a testament to the failure of education in America. It's hard to believe that Officer Daniels with just one phone call deluded the entire staff into doing terrible things. Not an ounce of proof was requested to verify the identity of the man on the phone even when his demands become completely outlandish and frankly disgusting. I highly recommend seeing this film, it will shock you and leave you dumbfounded. 5/5