Circus is an appropriate title for this busy British three-ring caper film. John Hannah is the amiable ringmaster, a gambling junkie and "the smartest man I know" according to all his acquaintances. Which doesn't quite explain why everyone targets him as a patsy in their elaborate scams and schemes. There are plots aplenty here: frumpy accountant Peter Stormare hires Hannah to murder his wife and then videotapes the deed for collateral in a blackmail scheme. Upwardly mobile thug Brian Conley pressures Hannah to run his casino while plotting his demise. Sexy Famke Janssen puts on her slinky best femme fatale pose as Hannah's girlfriend with a questionable past, playing the players against one another. That past catches up with her when Fred Ward, an old partner in crime she abandoned holding the bag years back, arrives for payback. Almost too clever for its own good, Circus is an ingeniously engineered mercenary free-for-all thick with secret alliances, double-crosses, hidden identities, and a plot that twists into a new direction every five minutes. What it misses in all the self-conscious plotting is a human equation. Hannah's grinning, easygoing attitude and Janssen's sultry air of mystery help fill out the characters, but the only real satisfaction coming at the end of this crack caper is its sheer logistic perfection. --Sean Axmaker
(15 votes)
2.
In this thrilling crime story set in Brighton, England, Leo Garfield (John Hannah) is a con man and gambler who is married to the gorgeous Lily (Famke Janssen), an American woman with a shady past. About to be pressured into running a casino in Manchester for the crooked Bruno Maitland (Brian Conley), Leo is hired to murder a friend's wife, who turns out to be the girlfriend of Moose (Tiny Lister), Bruno's enormous bodyguard. The man who hired Leo is actually Julius Harvey (Peter Stormare), Bruno's flighty accountant. As the double crosses begin to twist and turn at an alarming rate, Leo must also dig his way out of the enormous debt he has incurred with a pair of thuggish bookies, Troy (Eddie Izzard) and Bruno (Brian Connelly). Also making an appearance is Elmo Somerset (Fred Ward), a recently paroled American who is looking to exact revenge on Lily. Working from a taut, clever script, director Rob Walker's CIRCUS is an action-packed, darkly humorous, suspenseful tale that features an overabundance of pop culture references. Hannah uses the charming persona he established in FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL and SLIDING DOORS to add intrigue to the proceedings, and Janssen delivers yet another credible performance that proves she isn't just a pretty face.
(15 votes)
3.
Leo and Lily Garfield dream of escaping from the drudgery of everyday crime. Together they mastermind an audacious scam that draws an assortment of outrageous and dangerous characters into their tangled web. Every encounter poses the question who is lying and who's telling the truth? The truth is, no one is telling the truth. Or are they ?
(15 votes)
Mooviees.com is not the official site for this film.
All editorial views and opinions expressed here are for entertainment purposes only.
Movie Database
In Theaters
