Film Review: "Compliance" (2012).

"How far would you go?" This is the question in Compliance. This thriller film written and directed by Craig Zobel, and based upon the strip search phone call scam. Inspired by true events, the film tells the chilling story of just how far one might go to obey a figure of authority. On a particularly busy day at a suburban Ohio fast food joint, high-strung manager Sandra receives a phone call from a police officer saying that an employee, a pretty young blonde named Becky, has stolen money from a customer. Convinced she’s only doing what’s right, Sandra commences the investigation, following step-by-step instructions from the officer at the other end of the line, no matter how invasive they become.

In early 2004, a call was made to a McDonald's in Mount Washington, Kentucky; In the real life incident, the girl's name was Louise Ogborn and she worked at McDonald's. Her assistant manager's name was Donna Summers, and the caller on the other line was 'Officer Scott' and the call had originated from a pay-phone in Panama City, Florida. The card he had used was an AT&T phone card that he had bought at Wal-Mart. The only person who did prison time in the real case was Walter Nix Jr., boyfriend of restaurant manager Donna Summers. Summers was given probation. The caller David Stewart was believed by cops to be thirty-eight-year-old prison warder Stewart. Who is thought to have tricked managers of more than seventy fast food outlets in thirty-one US states into strip-searching, humiliating and sexually abusing customers and staff. Stewart, was found not guilty due to insufficient evidence. 

The film stars Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker, Pat Healy, and Bill Camp. We should give the cast well-deserved praise for taking on roles so unusual for them and so different than anything they've done.

Compliance is a film that really takes its time, but does a masterful job of showing how this scam didn't just destroy the lives of the victims, but how it became a burden to almost everyone involved. It's a story about the elusive nature of evil in a world that thinks justice will eventually come to our rescue. Among a plethora of skillful thrillers about repeat offenders in the realm of scams and frauds, Zobel's wonderful film has easily become the benchmark of the modern era. Beautifully poised, slow and sinister: a trance of expectant menace in which Zobel holds his audience until the film's finale. A complex crime drama that limits its action, opting to save it for the times that bring the greatest impact. So insistent, and successful, is at duplicating real-life hypercomplacency that you may try writing a "k" in two, not three, strokes to see the difference - damning and admiring how this indisputable masterpiece drags you down the rabbit hole. It is a great film that many true crime buffs would love due to the treatment given to the subject, and that many movie fans will admire thanks to Zobel's direction and the performances of its cast.

Simon says Compliance receives: