Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 32 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 48 Ratings

  • Starring: Ann Dowd, Bill Camp, Dreama Walker, Pat Healy
  • Summary: Becky and Sandra aren’t the best of friends. Sandra is a middle-aged manager at a fast-food restaurant; Becky is a teenaged counter girl who really needs the job. One stressful day (too many customers and too little bacon), a police officer calls, accusing Becky of stealing money from a custstomer’s purse, which she vehemently denies. Sandra, overwhelmed by her managerial responsibilities, complies with the officer’s orders to detain Becky. This choice begins a nightmare that tragically blurs the lines between expedience and prudence, legality and reason. (Magnolia Pictures) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 32
  2. Negative: 4 out of 32
  1. Reviewed by: Farran Smith Nehme
    Aug 17, 2012
    100
    The actors in Compliance perform with thorough and chilling sincerity.
  2. Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    Aug 20, 2012
    80
    If this riveting, repelling film is to be seen, it must be not at home but in a theater, where you are confined in a room, like Sandra and Becky, deciding whether to watch, and how you would react.
  3. Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    Aug 16, 2012
    60
    Director Craig Zobel's indie, based on real cases, has a sharp psychological point and a can't-look-away quality even as it turns horrifically dark.
  4. Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    Sep 21, 2012
    25
    The movie even fails on a psychological level, never illustrating how, in a pressure-cooker environment and swept up by mob-think mentality, we are capable of committing acts that innately repel us.

See all 32 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 17
  2. Negative: 6 out of 17
  1. Important to note that this movie is inspired by true events. Not entertaining in the way most movies are. It is uncomfortable to sit through and extremely frustrating, but also very compelling and suspenseful. A unique edge-of-your-seat and absorbing thriller, this is the most unsettling movie of the year. Expand
  2. To actually find out that when this film says based on true events it really means it, makes me feel even more
    disturbed. I shutter to think
    that a person could be manipulated that badly. Expand
  3. Compliance is the chilling true story of a young fast food worker who is accused of stealing from one of the restaurants patrons. A phone call is made to the restaurants manager, who is then requested to assist in the investigation. The entire story takes place within the confines of the restaurants back room. What transpires over the course of a couple of hours will have you running to the internet to see how much of this true story was fabricated for dramatic license. The answer appears to be none of it. Which is not only bewildering but also terrifying.

    For a film that is made by a relatively unknown writer and director and stars relatively unknown character actors Compliance is very well done. Zobel does a good job of giving us a sense of the environment that the characters reside in through subtle static shots. We are also given short glimpses into the characters lives which is allows for us to connect with them enough to be invested in the outcome of the story. This becomes very important as the story builds, and most of the characters become unsympathetic. Zobel also does a nice job of building the tension and drama in the movie. If you read about these events separate of the film you will have a hard time believing that any human could ever be so ignorant as these characters. However the events are a slow burn and Zobel does a great job of illustrating this. You will still be left shaking your head, but the events do seem more plausible as presented here.

    While Compliance is not a life altering movie it is very well done and worth your time. Compliance is a story that evokes sympathy, anger, and bewilderment all at once. That is a story worth telling.
    Expand
  4. annoying dialogue moronic script 101% unbelievable
    shame on anyone and everyone involved with Compliance
    the DVD extras are also pathic
    I f
    eel much better now Expand

See all 17 User Reviews

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