A drama about terrorist attacks. A thriller surrounding the courtroom. “Closed Circuit” promised to be an exciting film to finish off the summer. Unfortunately, it was unable to deliver and proved to be boring.
THRILLING PLOT
It starts in the Borough Market in London where a huge explosion kills hundreds of people. A suspected terrorist is put on trial for the bombing, and Martin Rose (Eric Bana) and Claudia Simmons-Howe (Rebecca Hall) are assigned to be his defense lawyers. However, there is a secret surrounding the trial that not even the defendant is allowed to know. The trial is split into two parts: an open session and a closed session. Simmons is assigned as the special advocate who is allowed to see classified information and give the defense in the closed session. The top-secret nature of the special advocate job means that Simmons and Rose are not allowed any communication, and that is particularly difficult for these two because of their romantic history. It also doesn’t help that MI5 and Secret Service may be involved and that the lawyer who preceded them died mysteriously. As the movie moves along and things get dangerous, the lawyers and ex-lovers have nowhere to turn and no one to trust except each other.
The movie has a lot of interesting aspects. For one, it feels like Big Brother is watching, which is interesting considering the recent conspiracies and revealed information about the NSA spying on American citizens. It follows the theme of many great movies and books of the past; there is a fine line between security and privacy, and the government teeters on that line far too often.
ABRUPT ENDING DISSAPOINTS
The paranoia, the mystery behind the terrorist attack and the complex relationship between the two leading characters would seem to make for a good movie, but the pace of the story created a dreary and forgettable film. There is no action until about an hour into the movie. You could miss the entire first hour and still understand the plot line just fine. On top of that, the ending was very brief and sudden. So overall there was an hour of practically useless information followed by a half hour of excitement and then an abrupt ending. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t the worst movie I have ever seen, but I definitely could have found a better use for my time.
Sure, the acting was good and the idea was good, but because of the lack of excitement for the majority of the film, most people who watch it will walk out of the theater and move on with their lives. There was nothing unique, memorable or thought-provoking about it. It might be a good RedBox film, but I would not waste $11 to see it in theaters.
