The film's attempts to expose flaws in the criminal justice system or give insights into the war against terror seem superficial, but Closed Circuit is entertaining in a sub-Hitchcock way.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 21, 2014

This is a genre I usually enjoy and while CLOSED CIRCUIT has some shortcomings it's a thought-provoking thriller.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 18, 2014

Some moody night-time London location work from cinematographer Rob Hardy almost saves the day, but overall it's a losing battle.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 28, 2013

Closed Circuit is too full of play-acting to resonate with our jittery moment as more than a skit, perhaps because half its cameras feel as though they're pointed in the wrong direction.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 25, 2013

The gunmetal cinematography and sleek backgrounds plunge us so quickly into Conspiracy Central that we immediately assume the worst of every police officer, judge and cabinet minister.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 25, 2013

This London-set political thriller is a damp squib.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 25, 2013

It plays as cut-price Le Carré; a recording of a recording of superior films. The picture is fuzzy, and the plot becomes garbled.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 24, 2013

John Crowley emails in his directing: "Get actor A to say his line, then get actor B to say hers."

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 24, 2013

Paranoia reigns on the streets of London in this drab, noir-tinged slog with Rebecca Hall and Eric Bana.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 24, 2013

Ropey performances, join-the-dots plotting and nail-shreddingly awful dialogue.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 22, 2013

With Eastern Promises and Dirty Pretty Things, screenwriter Steven Knight has proved his ear for London's darker rhythms. Here, though, there's little to raise the pulse.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 21, 2013

A dreary and derivative thriller that is nowhere near as smart or controversial as it clearly believes itself to be.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 2, 2013

There are enough genuine moments of surprise to make this genre exercise an invigorating one.

| Aug 30, 2013

Sharp ensemble work ups this thriller's intelligence quotient.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 30, 2013

I'd gladly pay to see Jim Broadbent do pretty much anything, but even he can't save this taut, stylish, but finally meh foray into the shadowy landscape of high-echelon statecraft gone haywire.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 29, 2013

The lawyers are supposed to be former lovers, but the film doesn't allow the leads to display any chemistry; likewise, it doesn't generate any suspense from its tried-and-true conspiracy premise.

| Aug 29, 2013

It's storytelling informed by sloppy, absolutist thinking, and it lends one more uncritical voice to the many who seem unable to distinguish between kinds and degrees of evil ...

| Aug 29, 2013

The somber tone conflicts with the far-fetched story line, sapping it of the energy it needs to effectively sell its twists and turns.

| Aug 29, 2013

It's a film that eschews intrigue and insinuation for government agents who monologue about the dangers of free speech and fair trials while garroting their victims.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 28, 2013

This officious, aggravatingly overexplained drama gets more washed out and dull as it goes along.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 28, 2013