Dear Wailoon,

Here's what I remember from my high school physics class: when completing a closed circuit, electricity must flow from a positive to negative source through an uninterrupted path. One bad connection and the whole thing dies. In film, the thriller genre works the same way. Comedies or action films can sometimes get away with narrative gaps that magically lead to big explosions or big laughs, but an effective thriller needs to be more conscientious of the physical world. And most importantly, we absolutely need to get a charge out of the ending. So let's go back and figure out where your latest film Closed Circuit broke down.

We open on a crowded London market, where a series of split-screen cameras allow us to watch multiple interactions at once. The sound ebbs and flows between characters, forcing our eyes to jet around the screen until more and more frames focus on a mysterious truck. And then - kaboom. The execution of this first sequence is engaging, authentic feeling, appropriately disorienting and perfectly effective. It's also a wonderful use of London's ubiquitous closed circuit cameras, from which the film actually gets its name (sorry if I got your hopes up). But that verite style is almost immediately dropped and Closed Circuit quickly becomes a rather standard, barely passable political drama that loses most of the power it produced in the opening.

One of the main sources of energy relies on the "special" relationship between Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall's characters. Although both are on the same defense team, only she, as Special Advocate, has access to Top Secret information in the "closed" section of the trial. It's hardly to her benefit, however, as Bana's character pieces more of the puzzle together anyway, and soon the distance they are required by law to keep becomes a non-issue to the plot. There don't seem to be many consequences for breaking the rules, and the story just keeps on flowing.

For the most part, the film has enough juice to overcome these small logic deficiencies and even some uninspired double-agent character reveals. But by the end, there is just no real payoff. No big light goes off that makes sitting through all the plotting and maneuvering worth it. And worst of all, I think the filmmakers knew it. The audio montage that ends Closed Circuit feels like a strange and dishonest after-thought tacked on to a story that obviously had no intention of providing simple closure. And that approach, as you know, is bound to fail if it's not handled right.