Review of Civic Duty (2006) by Josh G — 06 Jul 2008

Terry Allen (Krause) is the main character of the movie, but he is not the protagonist. When an Islamic grad student moves into his apartment building, Allen begins to have suspicions that he may be the neighbor of a terrorist.

I really don't believe that the audience is supposed to like Terry Allen. From the beginning of the movie, he's a total jerk -- yelling at a bank teller because she said "ATM machine" and that is redundant. For a long time during the movie, I didn't understand this, though. I thought it was a stupid movie. I relished the thought of Allen being proven wrong about his suspicions.

Gradually, though, it becomes obvious that Terry Allen has sailed past straight past obsession and into insanity. The tension builds as it begins to look more and more like Mr. Hassan (Naga) downstairs is using chemicals to produce biological weapons. Even more chilling, though, is Allen's single-mindedness: he has determined to prove that Hassan is a terrorist, at any cost.

When Allen knocks on Hassan's door with a gun in his hand, it becomes obvious that the real conflict in the movie is not about whether Gabe Hassan is or is not a terrorist. Instead, it's about how far Terry Allen's paranoia will push him and what it will drive him to do.

There are some very enjoyable scenes here. Peter Krause definitely makes Allen's obsessiveness believable and frightening, and Naga as Hassan manages to remain a mystery until the very end.

But there is also a lot of waiting, a lot of cheesy lines, a lot of implausibilities that do have a habit of sticking out.

Still, Civic Duty caught me off-guard with the direction it went it. While it's not an especially deep or intelligent film, it is an enjoyable one that is effective in keeping the tension high.