Compliance (2012)

Crime, Drama, Thriller

Director: Craig Zobel
Writer: Craig Zobel
Starring: Ann Dowd, Matt Servitto, Dreama Walker, Pat Healy

"How far would you go?"

Inspired by true events, Compliance tells the chilling story of just how far one might go to obey a figure of authority.

A man claiming he is a police officer calls a fast-food chain restaurant and asks the manager to run an investigation on his behalf on one of her employees, an attractive young woman, who allegedly stole money from a customer's purse. Convinced she’s only doing what’s right, she starts doing the investigation, following step-by-step instructions from the officer at the other end of the line, no matter how invasive they become.

With pretty strong performances from the main cast, especially from Ann Dowd, portraying the charitable and friendly manager, and a really chilling dramatization of real-life events, courtesy of writer-director Craig Zobel (Z for Zachariah), this thrilling indie drama is very tense and hard to watch, and certainly a film you won't easily forget.

Plot summary from IMDb: At a fast food restaurant, the manager, Sandra, is having a bad day. Suddenly, she gets a phone call from a man claiming to be a police officer who has a complaint that one of her young female employees has stolen from a customer. At the orders of this authoritative sounding stranger, Sandra takes the apparent accused, Becky, to a back room to search her before she is picked up. Once there, the phone scammer manipulates the gullible personnel into participating in Becky's sexual humiliation that grows more twisted with every new sucker on the phone. Only when one final person has the conscience to revolt do they realize the crime they were tricked into, which the real police are hard pressed to solve.

Awards: 13 wins & 25 nominations.
Runtime: 90 min
R