Becky (Dreama Walker) is a teenager who works the front desk at a fast food restaurant. She really needs the job, and she, like all her colleagues, take it seriously. Sandra (Ann Dowd) is the middle-aged manager of the restaurant who is conscientious and generally respected by her staff. She is a hard-working and compassionate woman who wants to do the right thing.
Friday night is the busy night at the restaurant, and to make matters worse, due to a mistake there are not enough supplies to last through the evening. Everyone is on edge.
At the worst time, Sandra receives a call from a police officer who describes Becky and accuses her of having stolen money from a customer within the last hour. Incredulous, Sandra knows that Becky hasn’t left the counter. She asks her to come to the back office where the police officer interrogates Becky and instructs Sandra as they pass the phone back and forth. The call lasts hours, and others are brought into the situation. Events quickly spiral out of control, turning a mundane every-day fast food restaurant into a scene of plausible behavior that turns strange, then incredible, and finally stark raving bizarre.
This is an indie-type movie. There is no sound track. A large majority of the entire dialog is done on the phone. Most of the action takes place in the restaurant back office. As events turn strange, I found it an uncomfortable movie to watch, because I could see that people could easily be persuaded to take questionable actions based on a flawed initial premise and subjected to governmental authority, real or imagined.
Compliance is a violent movie, although there are no guns, and nobody is shot or seriously hurt. The violence is psychological and brutal, to the point where multiple lives are damaged significantly, all by the power of words of a stranger on a telephone line.
I found this a disconcerting, uneasy movie to watch, and after it was done I sat there for a while, shaking my head in disbelieve. I could see how this could happen.
Rating: ** 1/2
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