Closed Circuit

Well watch this film to find out. Good actors, great locations, beautiful cinematography, what's left? oh, script and direction. Actually it's not that simple, It's hard to figure out just what is bad about this film. The pacing is out, it comes across as kinda boring, making out the sinister in the mundane and then turning down the heat. The all powerful unstoppable MI5 apparently has only a handful of operatives. The same people seem to be on 24 our call to do cliché henchmen work. Organisations that are all knowing and powerful seem to trip over their feet in the next scene. The ending (don't fight it, it's bigger than the both of us and in the end it is for the public good) was a decent point to make, but oh what a crappy way of making it. This film ended up being confused instead of exciting and intriguing. What a waste of good resources.

Closed Circuit is a good, although unexceptional, suspense movie. The movie has a strong start but a weak finale, and somewhere in the middle looses stream and starts plodding along to its inevitable conclusion. The story itself tests the limits of plausibility and features principal characters who have little warmth and fail to generate much empathy. The question of government duplicity is treated in an unimaginative manner and fails to generate any sense of concern or outrage. Yet the movie does entertain by generating a certain level of tension, albeit watered down. The question of cover up sustains the story and adds an element of tension. Yet there are no heroes which makes the ending anticlimactic. That certain scenes are set at a football game is unoriginal. Further, the alleged victim of a miscarriage of justice is hardly worthy of empathy and the same goes for his family, especially the fourteen year old son who belongs in juvenile detention. The acting is cheesy, the cinematography unspectacular, the story twists and turns predictable and the movie theme muddled. Yet, this movie should be watched because it dramatizes what happens when the truth is suppressed and transparency is discarded in favor of secrecy.

With good performances and good chemistry from Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall, "Closed Circuit" is an exciting legal thriller that makes you wonder whether there may be something about those conspiracy theories that we have all heard since 9/11. Beautifully crafted, the film will keep you on the edge of your seat and inform you about the British legal system. If, toward the end, it turns a bit into the realm of make believe, it is all done in a way where the protagonists never seem so far fetched in their actions that all of a sudden the film turns into Mission Impossible. Everyone knows that this IS possible and it's what makes the film good.

With the waft of a BBC movie and with some pretty shoddy production values, Boy A (a film you have to track down that features an early stunning turn from Spider-Man himself Andrew Garfield) director John Crowley's 2013 thriller Closed Circuit starts off in a very mundane way and while not translating into anything more than a well-paced if highly unbelievable thriller it marks itself off as an enjoyable way to pass 90 minutes of your life with a story that will grow on you as the red herrings and mysteries pile up.

Closed Circuit is a certainly a strange name for a movie that really has nothing to do with surveillance, instead Crowley's film focuses on the tensions and discoveries made between Eric Bana's gruff (and very un-British sounding) arrogant lawyer Martin Rose and one time lover Claudia Simmons-Howe played by the always threatening to break out of b grade status Rebecca Hall. These people are not overly likable and the film lacks a figure that can up the feel of the piece as a whole even though it's nice to see fine character actors Ciaran Hinds, Jim Broadbent and a man possibly bound for future stardom in the form of the always great Riz Ahmed get some nice supporting roles. With a lack of real interest for the films body of people it is up to the plot boiler story to carry it through.

As previously mentioned Closed Circuit's story is not really too concerned with being overly believable, in one particular instance it is insinuated that a large government agency such as Mi5 can't hack computers but by and by the story succeeds at grabbing your attention and making you keen enough to see how it all transpires. At the heart of the story is a very intriguing and relatively possible scenario of agency meddling gone wrong and the idea of terrorist attacks on a city like London remain frighteningly possible which gives the film a feeling of current time relevance.

Lacking an acting spark that would have really made Closed Circuit more the sum of its parts, in saying that the film does still remain to be a solid and at times surprising thriller. Ending off proceedings in a manner that shows us just what could have been with this story, Closed Circuit is forgettable yet not regrettable and for topical thrillers that is a refreshing twist.

3 Bran Stark's out of 5

i just want to say that i only took a peek at the first few lines of the first review on the first page and that was it...and i have to say that i have to agree with the reviewer and as a matter of fact, that was the first thought that occurred to me. this movie is a lot like the movie " ghost writer ", so if you liked aforementioned movie...which i did, then you will probably, most likely enjoy this movie also. did the British government have anything to do with the low rating? this movie was so much more juicier then the " ghost writer "...i mean come on man this is first rate movie making with a bunch of "A" list actors and actresses who were up to the task. there is nothing that i dislike about this movie except for its running time, which is too short for a good thriller like this. this movie literally had me eyes glued to the screen it was so juicy. i like a movie with a lot of twists and tension thru-out the movie and the ending to me was kind of unexpected. Kudos to all involved for coming out with such an entertaining movie.