Review of Closed Circuit (2013) by Patrick L — 08 Feb 2014

"This London-set spy thriller should have just stayed closed".

DVD Movie Review: Closed Circuit.

Date Viewed: January 20 2014.

Directed By John Crowley (Intermission).

Written By Steven Knight.

Starring: Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall, Ciaran Hinds, Jim Broadbent, Riz Ahmed, Julia Stiles, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Kenneth Cranham, Denis Moschitto, Barbora Bobulova, Jemma Powell, Doug Allen, Anne-Marie Duff and Angus Wright.

In order for an intelligent spy thriller to work, you need suspense and action like the "Bourne" movies for example. "Closed Circuit" I'm afraid doesn't have either of those things. Despite a talented international cast, "Closed Circuit" is not suspenseful or intelligent, it's just boring.

After a deadly explosion in a busy London market, the police detain a suspect in connection with the attack and two professional lawyers named Martin Rose (Eric Bana) and Claudia Simmons-Howe (Rebecca Hall) are selected by the British Attorney General to represent the suspect in court after their previous lawyer mysteriously fell off a roof. The two lawyers secretly had an affair years ago and they soon get tangled up in a web of secrets including a cover up by the British Secret Service. Martin and Claudia's reputations are not only at stake here, so are their lives.

Martin and Claudia are supposed to be former lovers but the movie never gives them any time to display any chemistry at all. The screenplay by Steven Knight is filled with plotholes and it is not inspiring. Director John Crowley doesn't give his cast much to work with. "Closed Circuit" is not a terrible movie, it's just lightweight John Le Carre.

There is a microchip of a movie somewhere in "Closed Circuit" but as it is, this London-set spy thriller should have just stayed closed.