run time: 96 mins
rated: PG
considered: Crime, Drama, Mystery
starring: Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall, Julia Stiles
movie summary: A high-profile terrorism case unexpectedly binds together two ex-lovers on the defense team – testing the limits of their loyalties and placing their lives in jeopardy. (www.imdb.com)
my thoughts: Closed Circuit stars Eric Bana as Martin Rose and Rebecca Hall as Claudia Simmons-Howe, a pair of romantically involved defense attorneys who have been handed London’s most famous murder case. Farroukh Erdogan (Denis Moschitto) is set to go on trial for a truck bomb that killed 120 people. He had ties to other terrorist networks but the British Secret Service (MI5) is being really protective of Erdogan and his family for an unknown reason. The deeper Rose and Simmons-Howe dig, the more trouble they get into. People who have outside knowledge of the case start to die unexpectedly, while attempts are made to take the pair out. Once they figure out the most important piece of evidence as run away, they race to find Erdogan’s son before MI5 can shut him up. The kid ends up taking the stand to testify what he knew about his father’s job, but it is too late as everything falls apart for the case. MI5 cleaned up its own mess and tied up any loose ends.
I personally was expecting just a little bit more out of this, but it was a sub par conspiracy movie. We are meant to believe from the trailer that there would be a lot of focus on London’s video surveillance network, but there isn’t. Save your money on this one.
my star rating: 3 out 10
Ten Stars or Less 