MOVIE REVIEW

An out-of-work accountant who feels besieged fixates on his new Middle Eastern neighbor.

By Carina Chocano, Times Staff Writer

The surveillance thriller "Civic Duty" may be the second film in a month to court comparison to Hitchcock's "Rear Window," but it's actually a dead ringer for "Falling Down," Joel Schumacher's coda for the middle-aged, middle-class American white man that came out in 1993. As the post-PC, postmillennial, somewhat Canadian edition, however, it dispenses with the reductive ethnic stereotypes that made "Falling Down" somewhat confusing (were we supposed to think that Michael Douglas' character was maybe a teeny bit justified?), instead setting its critical sights on the fear-mongering news media and its role as national psychotic.

Wild-eyed and lockjawed Terry Allen (Peter Krause) feels as if he's under constant attack, besieged on all sides by scary news, robotic bank tellers reciting corporate scripts ("How may I provide you with excellent service today?"), hollow slogans posted on bleak walls ("We value your business"), the high price of gas, you name it. Laid off from his job as an accountant, and about to lose out on the chance to buy the house that his photographer wife Marla (Kari Matchett) is pining for, he begins to fixate on their new neighbor — a young Middle Eastern man who collects ATM deposit envelopes and has suspicious boxes delivered to him by other Arab men.

ADVERTISEMENT

Krause, who is best known for his complex performance as Nate Fisher in the long-running HBO series "Six Feet Under," isn't given much room to develop here. From the beginning, he's barely controlling his simmering anger and leaps into the role of obsessive stalker with surprising alacrity. His days are spent sending out résumés, looking up wanted terrorists online and peering out his window at the improbably named Gabe Hassan (Khaled Abol Naga), a graduate student in environmental studies and a total babe.

After spending a morning trailing Gabe, Terry makes a call to the FBI and is soon approached by the beleaguered Agent Hillary (Richard Schiff), whose job has apparently been reduced to following every lead called in by an overzealous citizen taking too seriously the administration's suggestion that everyone be "the eyes and ears." Hillary knows a stressed-out guy with anger management and marital problems when he sees one — he apparently sees a lot of them — and tries to dissuade Terry from taking his freelance spying any further. Terry takes a casual "keep your eyes open" for an invitation to dig deeper, and the situation soon escalates beyond his control.

Directed by Jeff Renfroe and written by Andrew Joiner, "Civic Duty" comes on a little strong a little late. Underscored throughout by the nonstop yammer of 24-hour news networks pushing terror alerts, deadly viruses and rising interest rates, the premise that anyone who deliberately frightens others is a terrorist by definition might have felt more current, if just as handless, had it been released five years ago. By the time the movie introduces an element of ambivalence in the story, lecture hall ennui has long ago set in, and no amount of jittery horror movie conventions can change it. With nowhere for any of the characters to go, literally, the story becomes a tendentious exercise in belaboring a point.

carina.chocano@latimes.com

"Civic Duty." MPAA rating: R for language and some threatening situations. Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes. In selected theaters.