Outside of a soap opera, what are the odds of someone unknowingly hiring his own son (whose existence he didn't know) to kill a girl with whom, coincidentally and also unknowingly, the son is temporarily living? What are the odds that son will have a criminal record, and also will have a friend who is being persecuted by thugs and who would be ready to do the job the son refuses to do? There are more implausible coincidences in this hyper-convoluted and hyper-far-fetched plot, but these should prove the point.Characters are not only extremely improbable, but they also do not behave in a rational, intelligent way. A senior lawyer is manipulated like a boob to fire a girl on the flimsiest of reasons (with no cause, in fact). As his only leverage, the son has an envelope with evidence to incriminate the father, but instead of hiding it he goes to sleep, so the father easily grabs the envelope. Mysteriously, this same father -to demonstrate that he is as idiotic as his son- does not destroy the incriminating envelope immediately. Later, being interrupted by his wife when he is finally going to burn it, he exits the house just leaving the envelope on a table (!). Not only that, but days pass without him even remembering about the envelope. So too late he learns that, in the middle of a marital crisis, the wife (apparently also unknowingly) had sent the envelope to the District Attorney.The son goes to the girl's house to prevent her from being murdered, but he botches his speech to such a degree that she expels him from the apartment and he is unable to stop the killer. Generally speaking, characters seem unable to convey information in a clear way, even on essential matters; misinterpretations abound. Too much suspense is built around these confusions and these unnatural behaviors.

**SPOILERS** Extremely over-plotted made for TV movie that has at least a half dozen different storyline running concurrently through it at the same time.There's young and troubled Nate Corrigan, Devon Sawa, who' looking to turn his life around after serving six month behind bars on a stolen car conviction. There's also Nate's two muddled headed and criminally prone friends Leo & Dennis, Jaimz Wolvett & Darcy Belsher who are about the last people that Nate, being on parole, should associate with. It's these two noodnicks who pick Nate up from prison in a stolen SUV and almost end up getting killed in a wild ride where they almost ends up killing a number of carnival security guards who try to stop them from demolishing the place.The major plot in the film is the connection that Nate has with sleazy and oily defense lawyer Callum Crane, Bill Pullman. It's Crane who it turns out, through his birth certificate, is Nate's biological father. The father Nate never knew he had! It also turns out that Crane is somewhat of a ladies man cheating on his wife Natalie, Joanne Whalley, who in return is cheating on him by having an affair with Crane's law partner Brent Frazer, Kent Thembleh. The thing that really gets the movie, with all the confusion in it, going is Crane's rape of his first day on the job secretary Sophie Lennon, Gabrielle Anwar. Having Sophie fired from her job to keep her from giving him any trouble the very smart Crane showed just what an ignorant and overconfident jerk, despite his perfect recored as a defense attorney, he really is.It was Sophie on learning that her hot in the pants and unethical lawyer ex-boss was appointed to be a respected Federal Court Judge where he's sit and pass down judgment on rapists like himself that she started blackmailing him to either resign his post or she'll, by revealing just what a sleaze-ball he is, force him to do it. What in fact ties the Crane Sophie entanglement together in the movie is that Crane's illegitimate son Nate is also Sophie's roommate! Now how's that for a coincidence!Believe or not all this is just half of what's going on in the movie "The Guilty" the other half has to do with Crane trying to get Sophie knocked off by non-other then his, whom he at the time doesn't realize, son Nate! Nate not willing to do the job, he doesn't even ask his old man whom he's supposed to knock off, which has his good friend Leo, who's in debt to a gang of murderous bikers, do the hit-job instead.***SPOILER ALERT*** The last fifteen minutes of the film is packed with so many twists and turns that your left feeling dizzy just trying to follow it. When you and Crane finally get the pay-off to what the movie's ending is really all about you by then have been left so mind numbed and psychically exhausted that it takes you a while to figure just what the big surprise ending is really all about!

I saw this movie last night and was pleasantly surprised at what a good thriller it was.I won't give the plot away, but this film is full of twists and turns.At first I thought it was a long-lost son searching for his father, then I thought it was about a woman wronged. It had so many sub-plots, characters with agenda's and surprises galore.Devon Sawa (Final Destination) and Bll Pullman (Independance Day) are excellent in their roles, and add to the viewing pleasure.It starts out slowly, but gathers pace at an alarming rate.A buried treasure!

THE GUILTY is an adaption of the novel, by the same name, written by Simon Burke. Although I haven't read the novel, it is safe to assume that the film does not match the book, given the couple of flaws that let it down as a storytelling experience. However, its merits outweigh its faults, and it comes across as a solid cinematic thriller overall.Bill Pullman puts on an exceptional performance as Callum Crane, a ruthless big-time solicitor who gets roaring drunk one night after winning a huge lawsuit, and ends up violating one of his new secretaries, Sophie Lennon (Gabrielle Anwar). When Crane subsequently fires her in a feeble attempt to save face, Sophie blackmails him - unless he resigns, she reports the incident to the police and ruins his career anyway. Crane hires a young thug, Nathan Corrigan (Devon Sawa) to bump her off. Little does he know that Nathan is not only Sophie's flatmate, but his own illegitimate son from a fling in his law school days. Things get out of control when one of Nathan's thug mates, Leo Kilpatrick (talented unknown Jaimz Woolvett) decides to take on the contract himself after Nathan gets cold feet. While it pushes the "Six Degrees of Separation" theory to its limits, the film more than compensates for this with its excellent suspense scenes, evocative soundtrack and involved character development.I did, however, mention at the outset that there were a few flaws. Devon Sawa's acting is rather lifeless, but this is forgivable as he was a lot younger when he filmed this. There are a few, rather unnecessary frivolous scenes interspersed amongst the good ones, which should have been given some more thought. But what really let the film down was the cinematography. The camera-work and lighting was all rather bog-standard, not befitting the plot, which is that of a unique thriller. This served to dispel the suspenseful mood to a certain extent, making it seem too bombastic, and not involved and intimately human enough.THE GUILTY is a tale of sex, lies and the US legal system (whoops, tautology!!), and overall, quite an enjoyable thriller. The run-of-the-mill cinematography, however, meant this was never going to get any Golden Globes on the shelf. Good to watch on a dark and stormy night.