Compliance (2012)

This movie is very slow moving and much of it is taking place in real time. It seems so banal, the little conversations at the start as the workers come on shift getting ready for a big night and recovering from a snafu the night before. You get lulled into a sense of boring normalcy. And then the police call. I started being skeptical immediately. Sandra, the manager handles it poorly from the start, but also unfortunately believably. Ignoring that at the start of the conversation the supposed police officer is obviously fishing for information, because well, it is stressful when someone claiming to be the police call and say that something illegal is going on. But, when Sandra starts doing what he asks, even the first bit of checking her pockets, why the fuck didn't she think something was wrong? Granted that most people only have dealings with police officers as traffic stops, or more likely on television via the nightly news, how many times have we ever seen or even heard about a police officer asking a citizen to search another? Sure, asking some questions over the phone might be feasible, if they're the kinds of things you would tell anyone, or if verifying (depending on what you are verifying), but anything more would be improper. Why do you think police come to your establishment or ask you to come to the police station? So that we won't have bastards masquerading as police officers doing horrible things. I really can't excuse Sandra one little bit. She seemed like a responsible enough gal who had probably been managing the restaurant for a while, and therefore was more than familiar with the Human Resources guide. There is not an HR ruleset anywhere that will allow you to give out someones shift info to an unknown caller. I worked at a small restaurant, and we did have an employee who was stealing things (from us more than customers) and a year or two later another employee who was in trouble for possession of a controlled substance. Both times, all I did with the police over the phone was confirm that I would be at the restaurant and the other manager and I would have the information they asked for when they arrived. Of course, these were real police officers doing their jobs so there was nothing hinky going on. But, after that first girl and the phone call, one of the other managers grilled us about what we said over the phone, pointing out to us that regardless who someone says they are, we can't give out any information.
Now, I don't know when this movie was supposed to take place. It could have been any time the late 90s on to today, but that was the time I was working in the restaurant. I'm pretty sure that had I been the manager in question, I would have hung up the moment they told me to separate an employee from the other employees. If they are dangerous or a flight risk, how could I possibly know how to deal with them? And if they're not dangerous or a flight risk, why would I need to separate them from everyone else? Now, it goes without saying that I am not Sandra, nor was I the type of person who as a manager even remotely resembled her. Do I know people who would have complied with this type of thing? Maybe. I don't think any of the people in authority at the restaurant would have, and in fact several of us would have hung up immediately, told the employee about it and if she wanted to cut out early to take care of business, we would have let her. Why? Because I worked with my friends, that is to say that everyone I worked with became a friend and when the one girl who actually was stealing from us got caught, we had already told the owners all about it, and tried to get her to check herself into rehab. When I worked construction jobs, the foreman would have hung up on them, told us all that the shift was cancelled and he would call us tomorrow with details. I'm pretty sure that petty thievery was a much smaller crime than paying employees under the table. When I worked for the bank, nothing would have happened because everyone from team lead on up would have done what we were supposed to do and contacted our immediate supervisor/manager and called HR. I've worked in an outgoing call center where there were no women, so this type of crime wouldn't have happened (since the perp was picking attractive young women). But, all of the market research jobs I've had would have been the likely places where this occurred. The job in Minneapolis? No offense to the gals I worked with, but the only attractive woman in the office, either shift was the manager. The owners never showed their faces in the office, so that wouldn't have happened. Now, the job in Portland had lots of managers that were young and gullible and attractive, as well as lots of equally young and equally gullible and equally attractive employees. My boss was a real piece of work, and honest-to-dog, I wouldn't put it past him to pull some shit like this himself. But all of use guys? Of the five male managers that I worked with over the two years, I was the only one that was not a drug user. Most of the guys were moving small to medium sized amounts of pot on a regular basis. Is someone claiming to be a cop called up and asked them to do anything with an employee, three of them would have flipped out, hung up, grabbed their gear and bolted yelling behind them as they ran down the hall "It's a raid!" The other two would have given the caller a big fuck you and started in on spiels about big brother. And I would have calmly asked them to arrange with mall security a meeting with me and my boss.
So, aside from Sandra, there are lots of other people that go along with the call, yet for the employees, I don't think they have the same culpability. And I've got to say that when Harold finally comes in and calls bullshit, I was ready to stand up and cheer. Get that man a milk shake on me! Why are Kevin and Marti less culpable? They were doing what their boss told them to do. A real person, standing right there in front of them. A real person who has actual authority over them in regards to their job. Did they do enough? Obviously not. Kevin at least told his boss that what they were doing wasn't right and took himself out of the equation. My first impulse is to say that he should have called the police, except that he seemed to think that he was talking to them already, just like Sandra did. He should have called someone. The conversation would have gone something like, "Are you shitting me, Kevin? That's crazy! Cops can't make you do that." And then he would have gotten inspired to do more than just opt out. Marti is more culpable than Kevin. She did question what Sandra was doing, but only once or twice and then went about her job, kind of agreeing with Sandra when talking to Sandra and kind of agreeing with Kevin when talking to Kevin. Marti is wearing the uniform of a lead employee or supervisor, so she should have been even more on top of things than Kevin. At the beginning, Sandra tells her that there should be two people with Becky for HR reasons, and after that, neither Sandra or Marti even think twice about leaving a girl that they've forced to strip naked alone in the back room with a man who has pretty much nothing to do with the restaurant and certainly nothing to do with law enforcement. I hope Marti felt really shitty about not doing anything and got fired from her job just like Sandra did, but I also understand that it's hard to go against your boss, especially in stressful situations. Still, when Sandra said that the guy on the phone wanted Becky to take her clothes off, she should have called bullshit. That's why HR wants a non-partial witness in meetings and disciplinary hearings. That clearly did not work in this situation.
Now, I haven't forgotten about Van. They didn't say in the film if he was the one charged with rape, but I assume he was and rightly so. I only even question it because I don't know if rape could be applied to the fake police officer. I just don't get that situation at all. If I showed up at my girlfriend's place of work and they were holding a naked girl in the back office, I would have flipped out on them and taken the phone and immediately asked to speak to a superior officer. And then all of the stuff that the fake cop has Van make Becky do, that is just fucked up. How could a voice on a phone, even if it was PotUS give you the right, both legally and morally to commit rape? How could anyone listen to someone telling them to do any of those things, but especially the spanking and forcing oral sex and not just be so disgusted that they would say no. I am so fucking angry at Van right now. And the 69 other confirmed cases and the asshole men who raped a girl because a voice on the phone said they could. And I don't know how many other men who were never even known about because it didn't get reported. I am just going to be angry at men in general. Our culture more than says it's okay for men to take advantage of women. Guess what dumbfucks, we are our culture. We all so fucking suck right now. And so does Sandra. That interview she gives at the end where she basically tells the reporter that none of it was her fault, that it was just some horrible prank. How could anyone sit there with a straight face and say that rape is a prank? I am so goddamned glad I did not try for that job in Ohio right now, as I'm hating on the whole state at the moment.
This movie is intense and will make you feel uncomfortable and dirty as if you are somehow complicit. That's because it's a well made film portraying a real and horrible incident.

"You're fucked without bacon, I'll tell you that"

Compliance on IMDb