Of all the films you'll see this year, "Compliance" has, for sure, the most unbelievable plot of them all. The little tagline at the beginning saying "inspired by true events" hasn't stopped people from taking outrage at director Craig Zobel's supposed exaggerations, with "Nobody could possibly be that stupid!" being a common refrain.
And yet, a little Net trawling of archived news stories (try a search for McDonald's Kentucky 2004) reveals that the director of "Compliance" has made up next to nothing: This tale of a prank call taken to insane extremes actually happened.
Ann Dowd plays Sandra, a "ChickWich" fast food franchise manager who is having a stressful day after an employee left the freezer door open the previous night, causing thousands of dollars of losses and a bacon shortage. Thus, she's not in a good mood when a call comes from the police telling her that one of her employees, bright-faced 19-year-old Becky (Dreama Walker), has stolen a customer's purse. The police are going to be late getting there, though, so could Sandra maybe take Becky into the back room and search her pockets and belongings for evidence?