Film Review: Closed Circuit

I watched this film a little while ago and I'm still thinking about it.

It is a political thriller, set in London, after a bombing of the Borough Markets. With a suspect - Farroukh Erdogan (Denis Moschitto) in custody, all that remains is a trial and therein lies the rub.

Because of national security and risks that an open trial might incur, a closed session is planned and in an opening scene, the Attorney General (portrayed by Jim Broadbent) whole heartedly defends this decision in a radio interview.

Kenneth Cranham is Cameron Fischer, a head in the English law courts.

Martin Rose (portrayed by Eric Bana, complete with English accent) enters as a defence barrister and Claudia Simmons-Howe, (Rebecca Hall) as the special advocate. Neither are that keen on working together but I won't say why.

Devlin (Ciaran Hinds) comes in to work with both of them, not an enviable position but his character does keeps up the levity with some well written lines that may not provoke a full on laugh, but does keep the storyline moving, while it gets to the heart of the film and the real conflict at play.

Nazrul Sharma (Riz Ahmed) is there to tell Claudia the protocol for such a case, he presents himself as working for the Home Office, but that line doesn't hold up to much scrutiny by Claudia. Similarly, Melissa (Anne-Marie Duff) says she works in the Department of Transport.

Julia Stiles portrays a journalist Joanna Reece. All round, it is a pretty solid cast and helps make the story believable, and it is a good story, that keeps you glued to the end credits.

Think the mini-series State of Play in terms of quality.

Comments

  1. Film & TV Commentator13 December 2014 at 20:41

    This quote comes from another quality thriller. I'm generally not a fan of either Nicole Kidman or Sean Penn, but this film I was okay with both.

    Silvia Broome: What do you do when you can't sleep?
    Tobin Keller: I stay awake

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Film Review: Moneyball

Most of the sports films that have been made, have had very Hollywood plot lines. It was almost a recipe. Underdog team/coach/player/ whatever, trying to do something. A few montages of things going badly, then a winning formula, or new coach/player that tells them "they just have to believe in themselves" or teaches them how to work together with a few gimmicks. Which means, when you watch a well written film like Moneyball, you are completely unprepared by the realism and length of film that really tells you the true story. Or close to it, at least. With Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillan (Mr Zaillan wrote screenplays for The Interpreter, American Gangster and Clear and Present Danger) writing the screenplay, Brad Pitt portraying the character listed and the direction is tight and without any excess scenes, Bennet Miller was nominated for an Academy Award for his work with the film Capote - its a film worth watching for the all of the above and the finished product that
Read more

Film Review: Theater Camp

 In the middle of year six, I started attending Helen O'Grady's Drama Academy. Typical education sneakiness of actually teaching kids the skills to enable them to be confident out in the "real world" and with the fun bonus of how to project your voice while simultaneously messing about on the "stage" and acting out improvisation prompts and at the end of each year, a whole play. Nearly seven years, growing and learning in community buildings, after school during term time.  Good times all round. And it was definitely part of the draw card for me, for this new film, set at a summer theatre camp that beautifully illustrates the allure of performing on stage, telling stories and bringing them to life, for both the kids that attend and the teachers - and it's hard to tell who is the more committed or passionate about the craft. It's clearly a labour of love for Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Noah Galvin and Nick Lieberman - all four wrote it, the first three a
Read more

TV series reviews: The Bear & The Newsreader

 For your consideration today, two reviews for the price of one. The Bear and The Newsreader.  Not only do both series have a strong cast and gripping scripts for each and every episode but both also open the curtains for us to have a peek behind the scenes of a world usually off limits for mere mortals. We only see the finished product but here we see the shouting matches fuelled by emotional energy, impassioned speeches, tears, hugs and luck of the moment that brings it all together to make it work, that of a high end restaurant and the newsroom respectively. Both worlds also have that sense of the "other" family bond, strengthened by joint victories and triumphs and sour moments of failures made less painful by those in the room, bonded together through thick and thin to make a perfected dish or news television broadcast.  And indeed, they are not only fighting each other but up against the world, nameless - if not faceless, critics, ever judging, never silent and always o
Read more