SoftInloveRox Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Peter Kettle Closed Circuit is a Working Title movie made with great style, good acting and a proper script. No computer special effects needed, no spectacular exploding buildings; simply another example of Stephen Knight at work, and it's up there with Locke. '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. Director John Crowley does an excellent unpretentious job illuminating this very good plot and script. Eric Bana, new to me, and Rebecca Hall, are convincingly good as the one time lovers. Jim Broadbent, Kenneth Cranham, Ciaran Hinds, Anne-Marie Duff are all excellent. It illustrates how important is the SCRIPT! So many movies do not get this vital ingredient first and foremost. Without credible dialogue you're sunk, no matter who is in it. Rebecca Hall is her usual brilliant subtle self. Nobody in this largely overlooked film is less than very good.

Dan Gao When I waste time like this, I always rush to the "Hated it" reviews to bathe it the warmth of shared derision. But this time MY GOD PEOPLE! no wonder you believe Hillary kills people!? The problem with this movie is not the acting or pacing or cinematography or romance based on home-wrecking. It's the utterly silly setup. For reasons that are unclear the establishment is bent on conducting a show trial, with a culprit/victim who for reasons that are unclear is willing to go along with it, perhaps because his family for reasons that are unclear wants him to. So they manipulate things to assign a couple of compromised defense lawyers to handle the public and in camera portions of the trial. But the lawyers press on so the secret service starts murdering people to avoid some horrifically inept bungling coming to light... Um okay. Turns out 1 in 10 Brits is a member of MI5, so there is no need for CCTV, which doesn't play any part despite the would be eponymous title. This reaches a climax when our heroes must escort a teenage witness to the court. For no reason they seem to think the court is some kind of magic sanctuary... Anyway, this gut wrenching sequence plays out by the protagonists shouting "Hey look over there!" then walking to the courthouse. Where upon MI5 figures out the obvious solution and the movie thankfully ends. Er except for a coda with the lawyers acting like the sluts they are...

robert-temple-1 I have just seen this film for the first time, having missed it earlier. The film begins with a dramatic terrorist attack on Borough Market in London, involving a large van. As we all know, a dramatic terrorist attack on Borough market involving a large van subsequently took place. Copy cat? Inspired by an idea of? Coincidence? Psychic prophecy? We will never know. The film is very well directed, with excellent performances, and the pace never fails, as the tension is wound tighter and tighter. The terrorist attack really only sets the scene for the story which follows, which is entirely concerned with corruption within the British security services and what currently passes for 'the British justice system', a system which degenerates by the day. The story features a revoltingly corrupted Attorney General, which comes as no surprise, since I can think of a past one. John Broadbent is suitably menacing in that role, his eyes bulging with a terminally compromised personal morality. But the main target of the film is the establishment of the secret courts which have been instituted in Britain today, and which include not only the security courts such as the one shown in this film, but even the Court of Protection, in which invalids and children have their fates decided in secret, with their relatives being excluded from the process. My view is plain: there is no place for secrecy in the justice system, since as soon as the system ceases to be transparent, corruption and abuse are inevitable. This film is about such abuse. A young Turkish man with the unfortunate name of Erdogan (this film seems to have foreseen perhaps too much!) is accused of being the mastermind of the London terrorist attack. However, it transpires that he was all along an agent for the British security services, but he has been framed by them to cover up their mammoth cock-up which resulted in the deaths of more than 200 people. The terrifyingly icy security head is played by Anne-Marie Duff, who will just as soon kill you as look at you, and frequently does so. The horrifying 'secret justice' (or should I say secret injustice?) laid on by the officials is shown in minute detail, and everyone is under surveillance all the time. Welcome to modern Britain! Erdogan's previous defence attorney has 'committed suicide by jumping from a roof', but we later learn that he was murdered because he discovered too much. An American journalist is also murdered because she discovers too much. And that leaves the two remaining lawyers, played by Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall. They naively commence their duties, only to discover that the whole process is a sham, that Erdogan is a patsy, and people who interfere in the plan keep getting killed. Attempts are made to murder both of them. They keep trying to fight the corruption, but they are out-manouevred at every turn because of informers and intensive surveillance. Can those fearless fighters for justice get anywhere in their David and Goliath struggle? Or will the System crush them, and indeed succeed in killing one or both of them? But one thing is for sure, the British 'justice system' will continue to become increasingly corrupted, since once the rot sets it, it is terminal unless someone courageous and true steps forward to put a stop to it. But I see no signs of such a person at the moment. Waiting for someone to save the British justice system seems about as hopeless a cause as waiting for Elvis to return from the dead and sing 'Blue Suede Shoes' live at Wembley Stadium. John Crowley has done a superb job of directing this gripping thriller, and all his cast have done just as well as he, to produce a cautionary film for our time, which deserves as wide an audience as possible.

Robert J. Maxwell I missed the first half hour or so and those minutes must have been critical because this is one of those complicated mystery thrillers involving institutional conflicts. Bana and Hall represent an accused Arab "terrorist" in London. They want to introduce evidence that he was actually working as an MI5 undercover agent. MI5, naturally, tries to (and succeeds in) preventing this from happening, in the name of national security. It's David against Goliath and, as it would happen anywhere except in myth, Goliath wins.But no one should have the impression that this is just another smash-'em-up action movie. It's intelligently written, acted, and directed. Absent are the usual trite devices used to juice up an otherwise dull story -- slow motion deaths, the screams of the strangled, the endangered child, the pretty lady undressing while a monster peers through her window. That, in itself, raises the movie a step above most of the other detritus littering our screens these days. And of course the story is of fundamental importance in pitting two concepts of "justice" against one another -- the individual and the national.The other elements of the film -- the photography and location shooting and the rest -- are of professional caliber. Ciaran Hinds is a standout in his role of companion, mentor, and traitor. Rebecca Hall has an endearing lisp. And Eric Bana has marked malars.If it shows up on the telly again, I wouldn't object to seeing it from the beginning.