Review of Compliance (2012) by Edith N — 18 Feb 2013

Never Say What You Wouldn't Do.

I've read many comments about this movie that contain the phrase "only in America." One stated firmly that police in the UK don't operate this way, as if to imply that somehow, police in the US do. Which, of course, they don't and never have. No police anywhere have ever done the kinds of things that happened in this movie--and in the Bullitt County McDonald's case on which it is based with alarming accuracy. I mean, let's leave aside that this would never stand up in a US court, which of course it wouldn't. The other thing frequently referenced, and deserving of more serious consideration, is the Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures. This is more relevant. (It's also worth noting that it was originally designed to figure out why people went along with orders in Nazi Germany, so not so much with "only in America"!) After all, across the board, Milgram discovered that some sixty percent of people did what the authority figure told them to.

It's just an ordinary day at the ChickWich, or anyway, that's what they wanted. However, someone left the freezer open the night before, and manager Sandra (Ann Dowd) is already frenzied. Then, she gets a call from a man calling himself Officer Daniels (Pat Healy). He tells her that a woman has come into the police station and told her that one of her employees stole money from the woman's purse. Sandra takes the vague description and says that it is obviously Becky (Dreama Walker). She calls Becky into the back room and begins interrogating her. Officer Daniels convinces her that she needs to search Becky, and then, it becomes strip search. Sandra balks a little, calling in shift supervisor Marti (Ashlie Atkinson), because she believes that it's better if there are two people there. Things get farther and farther out of control for Becky, and eventually, Sandra calls in her fiancé, Van (Bill Campo), and Van, too, does everything the nice officer tells him to.

It's easy to say, "I wouldn't have fallen for this." It's easy to say, "All seventy of those cases are obviously idiots." Because it's worth noting that the person who did it in real life succeeded seventy times in thirty states, calling long distance with a calling card and posing as a police officer and getting the people on the other end to do all kinds of random and sexual things. Heck, it's easy to say, "Well, those were mostly fast food workers, who aren't very bright, or else they wouldn't be working in fast food." As though no one ever had to work a job they didn't like and were overqualified for just because there weren't a lot of options out there. (Apparently, Louise Ogborn, the real-life victim, was afraid to "just walk out" because she was the sole support for her family after her mother was laid off.) A substantial percentage of us would have said no, as a few people did here, but more either would have gone along with it or tried to stay out of it if possible.

Because of course, there are levels and levels of authority in this story. Sandra herself is able to call in various other people and require them to do what she wants. She tries to get Kevin (Philip Ettinger) to go along with it, and he refuses--and how much harder to refuse the authority figure right in front of you who can literally fire you in that moment? Harold (Stephen Payne), the janitor, is even able to get Sandra to see how ludicrous the whole thing is. Eventually. Marti goes along with it to a point, and I believe it's Connie (Nikiya Mathis) who just wants nothing to do with it or the police. Van has absolutely no authority at all, and he still gets put in a position of power over Becky. (Real-life Walter Nix served prison time for the rape.) And, of course, the whole thing was based on a belief that someone had power, not that someone really did. We don't know how many times the scam didn't work, of course, but we know that it did over and over.

It's easy to see what went wrong and how. The most obvious mistake Sandra made right at the beginning was not confirming that "Officer Daniels" was who he said he was. She didn't confirm with the police department. She took his word that he was on the phone with her regional manager, Robert (Matt Skibiak). Obviously, she never should have done that. Perhaps that is the biggest problem with the movie, or perhaps it is that we are able to see "Officer Daniels" as himself before the reveal to the people in the store. I don't think we need to see some schmuck sitting around his kitchen making a sandwich to know that the man on the phone asking if Becky shaves isn't really a cop. As I said, no cops anywhere work the way the fake officer here does. The audience knows that, even if we can't guarantee that we'd remember it in the moment. It really does emphasize that these people are being stupid, and we'd remember that without the assist.