Civic Duty Review

Overall 4.00 of 5 (by 1 user)

Mr----X
North Syracuse, NY

Thought provoking and powerful, Civic Duty shocks and awes.

Movie guru, first in line on opening weekend, not a fan of propaganda movies, a fan of true to life movies

Pros

Superb acting, Thought provoking, Great story, Keeps you guessing

Cons

Strange ending, Leaves you with a few questions

JUL

2007

Civic Duty —

I hadn't heard of Civic Duty until I was surfing through IMDB.com and stumbled on it. I love "based on true life" movies so I definitely had to check this one out. I was a little disturbed by the end of the movie but, overall it was great.

Plot: Terry Allen, an account who's just been layed off, becomes obsessed with the media's portrayal of the events post 9/11 while trying to find a new job. When an Islamic college student moves into the same apartment complex as he lives and begins doing some shady things, Terry begins to suspect the student is a terrorist.

Civic Duty was one heck of a thought provoking movie. I am of Arab descent (not Muslim though) and it hit me pretty hard. I remember right after 9/11 how crazy everyone got. I've even witnessed first hand the violence that some stupid people have done to normal, non-terrorist Muslims. I understand that people were fearful at the time. Being cautious is usually a good thing but when kids are getting jumped in school for no reason other than being Muslim, it's just stupidity to the max. OK, that's enough of that, on to the review.

The acting is what really made this movie stand out. You slowly see Terry Allen, played by Peter Krause, lose his composure and start slipping into the psychotic mind set. He begins taking every little thing that the Islamic student does and crediting them as being terrorist activities. The emotions are just so believable, I almost began to empathize with Terry. Kari Matchett, who plays Marla (Terry Allen's wife), and Khaled Abol Naga, who plays Gabe Hassan (the suspected terrorist), also put in superb performances.

The story is so well written that I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I was wondering to myself, after every little thing happened, what was coming next. Every few minutes I was changing my mind on whether the student really was a terrorist or if it was all in Terry Allen's head. The directing is great and it seems like there are a lot of subtle nuances that the writers and director threw in to really get the point of the movie across. I've read, on a few forums, a varying degree of meanings for Civic Duty and I've come to the conclusion that it's for everyone to decide for themselves.

The ending of Civic Duty is strange to say the least. I won't say exactly what it is of course but, if you get the chance to see this movie, you'll understand. There is a lot of symbolism in the ending that could conceivably create many, many possible meanings. I really suggest seeing this even if you're not into movies like this because, people need to be aware of the atrocities that were happening right after 9/11 and of the ones that are still happening.

MPAA Rating: R (for language and some threatening situations)

Runtime: 1 hour 38 minutes

Year: 2007

Rating(out of 10): 8.4

Side Note: A few movies sites say that this movie was released in 2006 but, in actuality, it was released in May of this year.

Last edited on Jul 14, 2007