At the beginning of “Civic Duty,” a clammy little number that might’ve been funded by the Department of Homeland Security, the nation’s threat level slips downward from orange to yellow. But it doesn’t take long for this guessing game (is the Islamic grad student next door a terrorist, or just a moody Islamic grad student?) to slip downward as well, from reasonably promising topical thriller to paranoid hot air.
Peter Krause, looking like he’s gonna blow in his very first close-up, plays a recently downsized accountant who keeps a close eye on the activities of his new downstairs neighbor (Khaled Abol Naga). First he’s snooping in the trash bin; then he’s sneaking into the neighbor’s apartment and wondering what’s up with the lab equipment in the sink. The accountant’s wife (Kari Matchett) thinks nothing of their new neighbor’s activities and progressively even less of her husband’s obsessive behavior. Director/editor Jeff Renfroe is obsessive as well; he overshoots and supercuts almost everything like a commercial for itself, trying to make us as jittery as possible, favoring intense close-ups wherein one side of someone’s sweaty face is in focus while the other side goes creamy-blurry. By the time Andrew Joiner’s script (which feels like a two-set, four-character play) settles into a very long hostage situation, not even Richard Schiff’s droll underplaying as the drollest underplayer in the FBI can make dramatic sense of “Civic Duty.” A final twist vindicates everything the current administration stands for, fearwise, but is it technically a twist if you can see it coming a mile away?
– – – ‘Civic Duty’
* 1/2
Directed by Jeff Renfroe; screenplay by Andrew Joiner; photographed by Dylan MacLeod; edited by Renfroe; music by Eli Krantzberg; production design by Rick Willoughby; produced by Tina Pehme, Kim Roberts, Peter Krause and Joiner. A Freestyle release; opens Friday at the AMC River East 21 and the AMC Cantera 30. Running time: 1:34.
Terry … Peter Krause
Marla … Kari Matchett
Hassan … Khaled Abol Naga
FBI agent … Richard Schiff
MPAA rating: R (for language and some threatening situations).
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mjphillips@tribune.com
