Posted: 05/05/2007

Civic Duty

(2007)

by Matt Wedge

In the 1970s, American disillusionment with the ongoing war in Vietnam and the Watergate scandal led to a surge in dark, paranoid thrillers. Films like The Parallax View and The Conversation fed off the distrust that many people felt toward the federal government. In our current decade, circumstances are frustratingly similar to what happened a generation ago: The United States is bogged down in an unpopular war with no end in sight, the current administration in the White House has new scandals coming to light seemingly every month, and conspiracy theories about everything from the attacks on the World Trade Center to the death of Princess Diana run rampant across the internet. The time is ripe for a new wave of thrillers that hold up a dark mirror to the current situation in America. Civic Duty tries hard to be at the front of that movement, ultimately trying too hard.

Terry Allen (Peter Krause, Six Feet Under) is your average American “everyman.” As the film begins, he has just been laid off from his accounting job at the worst possible of times. He and his wife, Marla (Kari Matchett, 24), are trying to buy their dream home and get out of their small apartment in what appears to be the rainiest city in America. With nothing but time on his hands while he waits for a response to one of the several resumes he sends out, Terry lays about their apartment watching cable news channels almost nonstop. The constant barrage of color-coded security warnings, presidential grandstanding speeches about homeland security, and pictures of the most wanted terrorists take a toll on his already bruised psyche. When an Islamic graduate student (Egyptian actor Khaled Abol Naga, making his American film debut) moves in next door with nothing more than two duffel bags and a mattress, Terry’s suspicions get the better of him, leading to a downward slide into paranoia and outright madness that threatens to destroy his life.

The film nearly succeeds in spite of the unnecessarily flashy camera work and editing by director-editor, Jeff Renfroe and the leaden, far too on-the-nose script by Andrew Joiner. The operative word in that sentence was nearly.

The premise is promising: by using the media to constantly keep the American public in fear for their safety, the current administration is free to distort the facts and do as they please to carry out their agenda. But what of the effects on those who are exposed to too much of this onslaught? That is the question the filmmakers set up to answer. Instead of exploring this intriguing idea, they trot out every trick in the music video playbook. From the annoying habit of digitally blurring close-ups during “intense” scenes to the overly complicated camera movements and choppy editing that take the viewer right out of the story, no clichéd technique is left unused.

Equally frustrating is the apparent lack of confidence Renfroe and Joiner have in their script. Despite the clunky dialogue, which is prone to moments where characters give speeches instead of talking to each other, the story unfolds at a steady pace that heightens the tension. But just when it seems like the film is settling into a slow-burn thriller about a man pushed past the breaking point, they hit the fast-forward button and try to bring up the idea that the neighbor just might actually be a terrorist. This leads to a silly and overwrought ending that plays out like a parody of Dog Day Afternoon.

If there is a saving grace to the film that almost makes it worth seeing, it’s the uniformly fine work by the ensemble cast. Krause pulls off the difficult job of going from a loving husband to borderline maniac with an ease that is both frightening and depressing. Matchett and Naga are given sadly underwritten roles that they imbue with more personality and depth than the film deserves. The real standout is Richard Schiff (The West Wing) as a frustrated FBI agent who doesn’t know whether he should investigate the student or the obviously unstable man who is reporting him. He gives his character a tired, sardonic edge without ever undercutting his authority.

While the cast is able to work up a palpable amount of tension, it’s all smoke and mirrors. There is a great film to be made from the central idea of a man being driven to madness by the saturation coverage of the cable news channels. Unfortunately, Renfroe wastes not only this premise but also the excellent cast he assembled to explore it.

Matt Wedge is a writer and film reviewer living in Chicago.

Got a problem? E-mail us at filmmonthly@gmail.com