Film Review: Closed Circuit

Surveillance in the digital age is an omnipresent element of our reality. It’s a concept made palpable with the recent NSA leaks and their astounding scope of infiltration into our daily lives. Nevertheless, it is the United Kingdom—not the United States—that has been dubbed “the most surveilled state in the industrialized West.” With over 5 million closed circuit cameras monitoring the British populace with an Orwellian gaze, it is an ideal setting for work addressing the ever-tightening grasp on society. "Closed Circuit," unfortunately, fails to provide a profound social statement on mass surveillance.

In "Closed Circuit," director John Crowley concocts an egregiously mediocre film about a legal defense team’s struggle to unravel the conspiracy binding their terrorism-related case together. The lawyers (Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall) assigned to defend the alleged mastermind behind the bombing of a London marketplace are thrust into a judiciary machination with a variety of shadow players with no clear-cut moral paradigm.

Bana, known for his more action-oriented roles, gives a mature yet comatose performance as the recently divorced and surprisingly sharp barrister, Martin Rose, who takes on the case after the first lawyer suspiciously “throws himself off of a building.” Hall plays special advocate Claudia Simmons-Howe and gives a more believably stern take on her character.

Eventually, it is revealed that the two were previously involved, which resulted in “a nasty divorce” for Rose, a detail only superficially scratched upon. Although there is latent sexual tension, there is almost no semblance of chemistry between the actors. On that note, there really isn’t much dramatic energy at all over the course of events that transpire. No emotional attachments to the characters are ever established and the only character with a real personality is the serpentine and somewhat avuncular Attorney General.

From a technical standpoint, the film falls largely into the realm of mediocrity. Director of Photography Adriano Goldman gives a slick (albeit uninspired) sheen to the movie. During the opening sequence, Goldman uses a multi-cam view of the bombing that rips the market asunder, generating the movie’s visual and emotional highpoint.

From that scene onwards, Goldman uses constrained cinematographic choices that are well-composed and competent, but lack the fluidity and creative flair that produces an engrossing experience like the similarly conspiratorial "Michael Clayton." The jumpy and oft confusing editing exacerbates the unevenness of the film. The film does succeed in one aspect. Via faux surveillance camera footage and wide voyeuristic shots of the protagonists that alternate into extreme close-ups of their flat acting performances, Crowley achieves an aura of constant surveillance and redeems the film’s vision in a slight but insufficient way.

The film contributes very little to the ongoing debates on privacy and governmental encroachment on our rights. "Closed Circuit" conveys no lingering message, but in the context of a heavy-handed work like this, it is essential.