Civic Duty Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)June 12th, 2006
CIVIC DUTY
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2006 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
CIVIC DUTY, a thinking person's thriller which showed recently at the Cannes Film Festival, is a fascinating Rorschach test for audiences. A very topical film, it will have some recalling the 9-11 Commission's complaints about the FBI not connecting the dots before 9-11, and some also noting the recent large terrorist plot uncovered in Toronto as a direct result of government eavesdropping on suspected Muslim terrorist groups. Others will watch the same film and come away believing it proves the dangers of racial profiling and shows how average Americans can become terrorists themselves while in the pursuit of deranged and paranoid goals. And some viewers will, of course, vacillate between a wide range of opinions about the movie and about what, if anything, it teaches about the current struggle between the modern western world and Muslim extremists determined to destroy it. In short, people are likely to project all of their hopes and fears onto the film's canvas.
When we meet Terry Allen (Peter Krause, who plays Nate Fisher in TV's "Six Feet Under"), he has just lost his job as an accountant. Although there are hints that he is upset by everything from high gas prices to globalization, he appears basically to be an everyman character going through a little rough patch in his life. But, as stories of terrorists fill his newly empty days, he becomes obsessed about the dangers in the world in general and about Middle Easterners in the U.S. in particular.
Already in a mood to be looking for the worst, Terry has the bad luck of getting a new neighbor who fits into all of the stereotypes that he has been bombarded with on the daily television news. Terry immediately becomes suspicious of Gabe Hassan (Khaled Abol Naga), when he moves into a nearby apartment. Not only does Gabe appear to be an Arab, but he also appears to be involved in some questionable activities, ranging from 3 a.m. trash digging sessions to a little chemical lab in his kitchen. And, since Gabe moved into his large apartment with only a couple of duffle bags, Terry figures Gabe must be up to no good, so Terry starts watching him like a hawk.
Figuring, as you probably will too, that most of Gabe's behavior can be innocently explained away, Terry's wife Marla (Kari Matchett) follows a completely different approach. She takes flowers as a gift and goes to introduce herself to their new neighbor, who turns out to be a graduate student.
As Terry and Marla's wonderful chemistry together begins to deteriorate, Terry figures that a call to the FBI is in order. In a series of scene-stealing performances, Richard Schiff plays FBI Agent Hillary, who responds to Terry's call to the bureau. In a nicely humanizing moment, their first meeting is interrupted by a call Agent Hillary gets on his cell phone. "I'll get him!" the agent barks into the phone, three times in rapid succession. In the end, the call turns out to be from his wife who needed to discuss who was going to pickup their child that day and ends with "I love you."
Agent Hillary seems kind of miffed that Terry even called him, as if the agency can smell a crank call a mile away. When the agent assures Terry that they will look into the matter, your initial reaction will probably be that they won't do more than a cursory check, which is probably a good thing.
>From there on, Terry sinks into his own private black hole of paranoid delusion. When his apartment is briefly broken into -- or is it? -- he becomes even more convinced that Gabe is a terrorist and that someone must take action now.
>From the old-fashioned movie music to the muted color palate generated by the constantly overcast skies, the movie produces a very effective and mysterious mood of melancholy and foreboding. And just when the last act starts getting repetitious and appears to have painted itself into a corner, the movie comes up with some nice twists which makes an already good movie better.
CIVIC DUTY runs about 1:30. It is not yet rated but might be PG-13 for some language and violence and would be acceptable for kids around 11 and up.
The film will be shown theatrically in the United States, but lead actor Peter Krause said at our screening that the dates have not yet been set. The movie was shown recently at the Camera Cinema Club (http://www.cameracinemas.com) of Campbell and San Jose.
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