Civic Duty (2006)

Civic Duty is a thriller that takes a look at what happens when the war on terrorism gets a little too close and personal. It stars Peter Krause (the lawyer from ABC's Dirty Sexy Money), and Kari Matchett.

Krause portrays Terry Allen as a recently unemployed, generally boring accountant. He's working on getting back into the workforce when a "Middle Eastern guy" moves into the apartment downstairs. A series of events bring out Terry's paranoia of the possibility of his neighbor being a terrorist. While his wife ably explains the suspicious behavior away for a while, Terry is not so easily satisfied, and he gets more and more involved with the going ons of his downstairs neighbor, while his own personal life turns into a disaster. As the film progresses, the tension builds so thick we can cut it with a knife. Eventually, we have a showdown, but unfortunately, I still can't see the bullet ending up where it did. At any rate, Civic Duty does synthesize things at the very end.

While Civic Duty didn't get much attention, Krause's acting is first rate, as he successfully pulls off a more serious role than I often see him in. Fans of thrillers should seek this film out. While the words "nine-eleven" are never spoken in the film, that's clearly the undertone throughout.

Overall Grade: B

Reviewed by Jonas