COMPLIANCE

It is a regular Friday afternoon at fast food joint “ChickWich”, as the workers prepare for a busy night.  Assistant store manager Sandra rounds up her team to go through the do’s and don’ts of the night as she has caught wind that a franchise supervisor may be visiting the stores tonight.  It is explained to all the staff that all orders must be carried out to the nth degree because of this, which not only means ingredients but the order that they are applied.  This is made all the harder due to a freezer malfunction the night before that has left the store with no pickles for their sandwiches and a very limited supply of bacon.  In fact, $1,500 worth of stock was lost due to the freezer fiasco, which understandably has put a lot of unnecessary stress on poor Sandra.  Other than these problems, it appears that it is going to be another normal Friday night, busy as all heck but a good one for the business.  However things change dramatically when Sandra receives a phone call from a police officer named Officer Daniels explaining to the manager that he has a woman claiming that one of the “ChickWich” staff had stolen money from her purse.  The description of the employee in question matches that exactly of young Becky who works at the front of the store serving the customers.  Sandra is stunned by the accusation that Becky is a thief because she has never had a problem with the girl at all, but Officer Daniels continues to explain that he also has eyewitness accounts and video surveillance footage to corroborate the accusation.  He requests that Sandra remove Becky from her station and to place her in a storeroom where they can talk to her about the event.  Sandra complies with his request but when Becky denies any wrongdoing, the officer on the end of the phone informs Sandra that due to him being unable to make it to the store for awhile, it is up to her to strip search Becky in an attempt to find the stolen money.  Sandra is incredibly uneasy about this, as is Becky for understandable reasons, but when Officer Daniels explains that he will take full responsibility for the action; Sandra agrees to do what he says.  No money is found on the now naked girl, and the fast food workers think that this horrible ordeal would come to an end, but sadly this is just the beginning as for the next three hours, Becky is humiliated, sexually abused and coerced into performing a sexual act on a man she barely knows, all at the request of a police officer at the other end of the phone line.

The very first image of “Compliance” is one with the words “Inspired by true events” in big bold letters taking up the whole of the screen.  As amazing as it sounds, this is very much a true story and it is really scary at just how close to the real case the events depicted in “Compliance” really are.  It is because of these events that make “Compliance” a really hard film to watch.  At times it feels so exploitative and you may question director Craig Zobel’s motivations for showing us the degradation of a young girl in such minute detail.  However it is this detail that also makes “Compliance” such an important film.  After watching the film, I did some research on the actual case that inspired “Compliance” and all of the details of the young girl’s abuse are totally spot on.  The fact that Zobel chose to show exactly what happened to this girl is an incredibly brave decision, not least because at times it feels totally made up and it makes it hard to believe that this is exactly what happened.  In my own experience I was totally caught up in the suspense of the entire proceedings until Sandra’s fiancé, Evan, enters the picture and I thought that no one in their right mind would have done the stuff that is done here to another human being at the request of an unseen person.  It made no sense and took me out of the film and felt like Zobel was going for a cheap thrill.  However I was shocked and disgusted to learn that especially these details are accurate.  For the record these incidents include Evan spanking Becky on her naked bottom after disobeying orders from him, forcing Becky to do jumping jacks whilst naked, and the worst, forcing her to perform fellatio on him.  You have to remember that all of these things are “requests” from the police officer on the end of the line, but it is really hard to believe that no one actually questioned thoroughly what they were told to do to Becky.

In regards to “Compliance” being exploitative, well I had to reassess my opinion on this as well, because it is actually the degrading things that happen to Becky and the whole situation that are of an exploitative nature, and it is a compliment to Zobel’s handling of the material that makes us feel them so fully, but the film itself is anything but exploitation.  Zobel never lingers on Becky’s naked flesh or shoots these scenes in any kind of degrading way.  He is actually very respectful of the story (and his actress) and prefers to tell and show the horror of it all, rather than make it titillating in any form whatsoever.  This is why I believe in the importance of showing the entire truth of what happened to Becky during her ordeal, so it isn’t lost just how bad it was for all involved.

“Compliance” is an actor’s movie and everyone gives splendid and very realistic performances.  For my money, the strongest performance comes from Ann Dowd who plays the confused and unsure manager, Sandra.  She is simply magnificent and understands the nuances of her character perfectly.  Sandra does not want to do what she is told to do and forever feels for her employee Becky, but is too intimidated by the perceived authority on the phone to actually question it properly.  She is also easily tricked by Officer Daniels when he uses real names that she is familiar with, but her biggest flaw is when the officer compliments her on how well she is doing.  You can see she feels a sense of pride and whenever she is wavering on doing something, Daniels always brings her back with a compliment.  Ann Dowd’s greatest scene is when she is told to strip search Becky, with fear and shock so evident in her eyes and yet she just wants to do the right thing.  She silently cries while being told what she must do, and it is just an amazing scene.  There is no doubt that Sandra is also a victim in this horrendous crime.  Dreama Walker plays the unlucky Becky and does a fantastic job of showing us just how horrible and demeaning a crime this was.  Her initial shock when she is accused of theft is soon replaced by fear which in turn is replaced by an almost understanding of how bad it is going to get.  Towards the end of the film Walker plays Becky almost vacant, as if she has left her body while so much bad is happening to it.  The other performer I want to mention is Pat Healey who plays the antagonist, Officer Daniels.  The only thing I am familiar with Healey being in is his comedic turn in Ti West’s “The Innkeepers”, and this is an incredibly different role.  It is quite shocking seeing just how normal a person Healey portrays Daniels’ as, as we witness him making himself sandwiches and doing normal household chores while destroying people’s lives on the phone at the same time.  It is also incredibly scary at just how little he cares about the impact he is having on these lives, and worse how much enjoyment he is getting out of it.  As normal as Healey portrays him, Daniels also has the ability to be incredibly creepy and very aggressive when it is called for as we see mostly when he is talking to Becky, and Evan too.  Again, I cannot praise the actors enough for their performances in “Compliance” and making it all seem so real.

Directorially Craig Zobel has handled the material very sensitively and seriously.  He doesn’t go for any cheap or titillating thrills (although I do question his close-up on a straw during the scene when Becky performs fellatio on Evan, it seemed a little obvious), instead focusing on making the drama incredibly real.  I especially thought the scenes before the prank call was taken to be handled very well indeed and gave a great reality to the working life of a fast food restaurant, as well as giving us an understanding of all of the characters to be involved in this story.  To be able to get this across in just a few short scenes is masterful.  I must admit that I thought Zobel’s decision to shoot “Compliance” in the wide 2:35 ratio as inspired, especially because I assume that it would have made the claustrophobic atmosphere that much harder to achieve, but he does a great job with some brilliant uses of composition and framing.  The only thing I question about Zobel’s direction is his decision to let us, the audience, see Officer Daniels during the phone call.  Granted, he elicited a fantastic performance out of Healy in the role, but I’m not sure if the film wouldn’t work better if Daniels doesn’t appear except as a voice, which is how the characters themselves only interact with him.  Maybe there could have been a reveal at the end showing him to be just a normal guy, I don’t know, but it is just a decision I question.  Finally I must quickly mention the brilliant sound design and sound editing especially during transitions, it was great stuff indeed.

In regards to the real case, the actual thing happened at a McDonald’s store in Kentucky, USA in 2004, and the victim of the crime was a young 18 year old girl named Louise Ogborn (the Becky character in the film).  Ogborn’s manager was Donna Summers (Sandra)  who initiated the strip search on her after a prank caller, David R. Stewart, posed as a police officer and told her to do it.  Ogborn and Summers both sued their employers, McDonalds, over their negligence to inform their staff about this prank caller who had been victimizing fast food restaurants in particular for some time.  McDonald’s knew of the threat but told none of their staff about it and Ogborn was awarded $6.1 million while Summers received $1.1 million.  Walter Nix, who was Summers’ fiancé at the time, was sentenced for five years in prison for his part in the sexual abuse of Ogborn.  Amazingly, Stewart (who was a former prison guard) escaped conviction entirely even though evidence was found at his house linking him to the crimes.

Overall, “Compliance” is not an easy film to watch but it is an important one.  The film looks at how willing normal people are at inflicting pain and abuse upon another human being under the guise of “doing the right” thing.  It also looks at how people are often afraid to question authority even when what they are being told to do make no moral sense at all.  “Compliance” is a wonderfully acted and directed film, and is a very sad and unbelievable story about the abuse of a young fast food worker, whose degradation was so bad that it should never be forgotten.  It is a tough film, but a great one.

4 Stars.