The TV spots for CLOSED CIRCUIT look really exciting – fast cuts, action, an international suspense thriller…
I should have seen it coming.
The tip-off that this wasn’t going to be as exciting as advertised should have been in the narration of the commercials primarily American voice over. What that covers up is the film’s heavy English brogue which you barely notice in the TV spots but make the movie hard to follow in real life since, after all, CLOSED CIRCUIT is an all-Brit production.
And the story?
It begins in downtown London where a massive explosion decimates the area killing and injuring dozens of people in the process. We then become part of the hunt for the terrorists responsible for the deadly incident and ultimately the one killer who survives it—leading to London’s trial of the century.
Here’s where it gets tricky and dangerously deceptive in some ways.
Chosen to defend the suspect are Eric Bana and special government approved advocate Rebecca Hall. But with much of the defense resting on potentially classified testimony, the government is keeping one of the two barristers from seeing certain highly secret evidence.
If that’s not bad enough, Bana and Hall were once lovers.
Oh, and all signs now point to an M.I.5 cover up.
All that plus Julia Stiles, Jim Broadbent and bustling London locations.
Exciting? I wish.
The best thing I can say about this movie is that they got it all done in a record running time of just 96 minutes.
I overheard one critic pondering why the film’s distributor didn’t just take the film direct to DVD or On Demand? I couldn’t agree with her more.
CLOSED CIRCUIT delivers a C- grade.
(Reviewed at Glenwood Arts Theatre)
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