ltlacey We open the movie with our protagonist depositing his severance check at the bank, and when told he could save himself time by using the ATM he gets angry. Later on, when he is at the post office and is told that he could save time by using a machine, he almost loses it, but holds his anger in. From the first incident, and then reinforced by the second, I realized that Terry has a problem with machines, and especially with those who tell him how convenient they are. (Keep in mind the theme of how convenient they are.) This is later brought up with an inference that his job could be done by a machine. We also have small snippets and comments that Terry is not too mentally stable, and we see this as well as the movie progresses. The arrival of a new neighbor, a man of middle-eastern descent, sets the final stages of Terry's tenuous grasp of reality, and the final scenes in the movie, going. The acting was spot on, though at times the camera work was a bit too jumpy, even if it was supposed to relay Terry's world (how unstable it was becoming). IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS, STOP READING NOW. I have read numerous threads and blogs about this movie, but to date have not read anything to support the fact that Hassan was, or was not, a terrorist. But I shall leave the readers with this thought: Remember when you were in college (for those who went) and all the books and notebooks you had all over the place? How about those of you who attended graduate school? I've been in academia for ages, and even when I am taking but 1 class, there are reference books, as well as that class' textbook around. In every scene inside Hassan's apartment, and we saw every room and most every closet, I did not see one notebook or one textbook, and I found this odd that a graduate student did not have one single academic anything where he lived. The only thing he had was his laptop, which might work if one was a history major, but not a science (chemical engineer from what I concluded when he was describing to Terry what he was studying). So now, was he truly a terrorist or not? And the final scene of the movie, when Terry was watching the TV (another reason to shut the darn thing off; what with all the Too Much Information Can Be Bad for You going on 24/7) and it's a golf show, was the news snippet real or not? I think it was what he was remembering hearing, as the announcer said this incident with the cyanide on the flaps of the envelopes happened weeks prior. Or how about this? The entire movie, much like Slater in He Was A Quiet Man, is Terry's psychosis remembering events as he knows them, not as they actually occurred. This would explain why the FBI agent did not do anything and the death of his wife from a single shot from his own gun (from far away and small caliber too!). If you have seen this movie, but were not too sure or did not like it, watch it again, but this time pay special attention to Hassan's apartment and what Marla and Agent Hilary say to Terry.

Roland E. Zwick "Civic Duty" is like "Rear Window" for the post-9/11 age. Terry Allen is a recently laid-off accountant who, thanks in large part to an ubiquitous, sensation-seeking news media, has become increasingly obsessed with the "terrorist threat" plaguing the Western world. When a young Middle Eastern man moves into an apartment across the way, Terry immediately goes into surveillance mode, spying on his every move, following him around town, breaking into his home, and even reporting him to what Terry quickly learns, much to his dismay, is a decidedly uninterested and unconcerned FBI. Soon, his life and marriage are falling apart as he plunges ever deeper into his paranoia-driven madness."Civic Duty" starts off as a reasonably compelling psychological thriller, but the longer the movie goes on the more far-fetched and heavy-handed it becomes. Peter Krause, who was so subtle and effective as the star of "Six Feet Under," is forced to go so over-the-top in his performance here that we begin to fear he'll burst a blood vessel long before the movie is over. The underlining doesn't stop there, however, for Jeff Renfroe"s direction is filled with any number of hokey touches, including panning wildly or having the camera do virtual somersaults anytime anything even remotely sinister or suspenseful is about to take place.The movie first points out how the media, obsessed with profits and ratings, finds it necessary to bombard us with a steady stream of potential terror threats, both real and manufactured, on an around-the-clock basis - and then questions what kind of effect such sensory overload might have on an already unstable personality. And, beyond that, might the media and the political class it serves be turning all of us, to some degree or another, into raging paranoiacs, ready to pry into our neighbors' private business in the cause of national security? Unfortunately, this provocative theme gets buried under a truckload of paranoid-thriller clichés.Kari Matchett, Khaled Abol Naga and Richard Schiff ("The West Wing") do well in their various roles, but the movie, well intentioned though it is, falls far short of its potential.

Claudio Carvalho After being laid off in a downsizing of his company, the bitter and bigoted American accountant Terry Allen (Peter Krause) faces financial problems with the mortgage of his house. He uses his available time to snoop his downstairs neighbor Gabe Hassan (Khaled Abol Naga), a Middle Eastern student that is having his Master degree sponsored by an Islamic organization in an American university, and calls the FBI to tell his suspicion. However, FBI Agent Tom Hilary (Richard Schiff) asks him to forget Hassan. When Terry tells his wife Marla Allen (Kari Matchett) that he had contacted FBI, she becomes upset and leaves Terry. However, his obsessive bigotry and alienation trigger paranoia against his neighbor and a tragic conclusion."Civic Duty" repeats the storyline of "Rear Window", i.e., a neighbor snooping another one, to expose in low pace the prejudice and alienation against immigrants in USA after the infamous September, 11th. Peter Krause gives a top-notch performance in the role of an average American citizen of middle-class, frustrated by the unemployment, bombed by the media with shallow information against Islamic people and his alienation and bigotry becoming paranoia that the poor Islamic student is associated to a terrorist group. The plot is totally believable and the tragic conclusion is very realistic. Unfortunately, the DVD released by FOX gives wrong information in the cover, since it has NO SUBTITLES and NO CLOSED CAPTION. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): Not Available

ayora_19 After having read some of the negative reviews on the IMDb message board, I must say I was pleasantly surprised when I watched this movie. One of the great things about this was that it didn't immediately jump into the media's coverage of the terrorist plots in the post 9-11 world, but rather gives the viewer an insight into the mindset of the lead character (Peter Krause). This makes his obsessional behavior and the build-up of the paranoia he has against his neighbor very believable, because you start to understand that his dissatisfaction is caused by more just the 9-11 bombing. The actors were extremely convincing in their portrayal of these difficult characters. And although you might only sympathize with Khaled Abol Naga's character, you get a feeling of understanding for Peter Krause's character as well. All in all, an excellent and suspenseful thriller with surprising twists and great content.