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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: Civic Duty

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#1 of 1 Posted 4/24/07 10:07 PM

From Harveycritic Posts 1637 Last Jan-30
To All [Msg # 22364.1 ]

    CIVIC DUTY

Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Freestyle Releasing
Grade: B+
Directed by:    Jeff Renfroe
Written By: Andrew Joiner
Cast:   Peter Krause, Kari Matchett, Richard Schiff, Khaled Abol Naga
Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 4/24/07
Opens: May 4, 2007

Bad things happen to good people every day. Individuals get pushed onto the subway tracks as trains approach. Students get shot in classrooms. Thousands get killed within minutes as planes crash into towers. Yet we go to work daily without looking over our shoulders or through the windows, we take the train every day (while standing a few feet from the edge of the platform), and we attend class without locking the doors. What else can we do? We have to function. If we become paranoid, we end up like the guy in Jeff Renfroe’s “Civic Duty,” and we don’t want that to happen, do we? He seemed to have everything going for him, if only he minded his own business–not that we should avoid reporting what appears to be a fairly clear case of possible criminal of terrorist activity to the authorities without taking the law into our own hands, as he did. Here’s what this guy did, and it’s pretty scary, making for a tense, political and psychological thriller, craftily written by Andrew Joiner, photographed by Dylan MacLeod with just the right attention to close-ups at key moments.

Terry Allen–played by HBO’s handsome, magnetic “Six Feet Under” veteran Peter Krause–has just been laid off his job as an accountant.   (So much for the current talk that accounting is the new, sexy, much-in-demand job, but there’s a reason he was bounced so quickly as we learn later on). The fellow now has time on his hands and he’s apparently not keen on shopping and doing laundry. Warned at every turn by TV newscasters and President Bush about terrorism and perhaps wanting to show his working wife, Maria (Kari Matchett), that he can be a hero, he begins spying on his new neighbor, Gabe Hassan (Khaled Abol Naga), cluing in FBI agent Hillary (Richard Schiff)–who probably gets a dozen such alerts daily. Hillary becomes angry when Allen begins to take the law into his own hands, breaking into Hassan’s house, discovering apparent evidence. When WASPish Allen and the man Allen calls “the Middle Eastern guy” confront each other, the story escalates, tensions mount to a fever pitch, the excitement hyped by Eli Krantzberg’s music and the director’s deft editing. By the pic’s conclusion, we are left wondering whether the Middle Eastern guy–played menacingly by Egyptian newcomer Khaled Abol Naga–is what he says, a poor student on scholarship working for a Master’s in chemistry, or a terrorist taking orders from a foreign power. We wonder as well whether the FBI is naively blaming Allen for stepping on its toes, for crossing boundaries that should have been traversed by a lax agency, or whether the bureau is simply upholding the liberties we hold dear under the Constitution.

What is most important, though, is that “Civic Duty” keeps us riveted by exploiting justifiable fears exacerbated not only by terrorist threats but most recently by crazed student Cho at Virginia Tech, followed up within days by another psycho at a space center who killed a hostage and then himself. One has to wonder how we can continue walking down the street keeping our eyes straight ahead, even humming happy tunes.

Rated R.    94 minutes   2007 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online

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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: Civic Duty

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