![]() ![]() Grade: B+ĭirector: Craig Zobel Cast: Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker, Pat Healy, Bill Camp, Philip Ettinger, James McCaffrey, Matt Servitto, Ashlie Atkinson Release: 2012Ībove: Ogborn and Nix during the assault, from security video. In reality, the primary suspect in the hoax was acquitted of all charges. Not so the ending, in which it’s implied that the bad guy gets caught. Zobel claims that his film is a composite of scores of similar telephone hoaxes that plagued the Midwest 10 years ago, but the plot of Compliance adheres closely to the recorded facts of the Kentucky incident. The motivations of both parties to that event are … curious, at least to me. ![]() That is, plausible until the sex assault. I have no idea how true-to-life the proceedings are in Compliance, but Zobel’s step-by-step direction and some superb acting by Ann Dowd, as the manager, make the outrageous seem plausible. The stressed-out manager succumbs, the fearful girl succumbs and, once the manager’s middle-aged fiancé enters the picture, a relatively harmless prank escalates to sexual assault. Ah, but you are not an 18-year-old girl from the sticks of Kentucky (Ohio in the movie), needful of your job, intimidated by police, and conditioned - as most of us are - to respect authority. ![]() Even should the manager acquiesce to this absurd request, certainly the young girl would have none of it. ![]() Police, this man says, are at the moment short-handed, and would the manger mind helping them out? Would she please begin by strip-searching the female employee? The “cop” informs her that one of her employees is accused of stealing from a customer. It’s to Zobel’s credit that, after watching his dramatization of the incident, the behavior of several unfortunate fast-food workers doesn’t seem that far-fetched.Ī summary: A man calls the restaurant and, claiming to be a police officer, asks to speak to the manager. On paper (see sidebar below), what happened to employees of a rural McDonald’s outlet stretches credulity. That’s the moral dilemma faced by several characters in Compliance, writer-director Craig Zobel’s squirm-inducing drama based on a series of real-life telephone hoaxes perpetrated in the early 2000s. Will you do it? You might say, “Of course not” - but there are scientific studies proving that, more likely than not, you will. You are not, and I’ve just ordered you to do something distasteful. ![]()
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