After an ill-advised strike against a terrorist attending a funeral in January 2009, an extremely strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution and the Patriot Act activates a regime change. In D.C. a high F note played by an 8-year-old trumpeter from Hyde Park figures in incredible machinations that include hitting emergency brakes on El trains and assassinating an Iranian-American by high-tension power wires. This fine thriller was written by John Glenn, Travis Wright and Hillary Seitz, who delight in toying with the idea that a plot is concocted like lines of computer code, and that characters walk, run and jump at the whim of unseen forces for our entertainment. Two innocent civilians (Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan) are recruited by remote control to do their civic duty with extreme prejudice. This couple of strangers receive cryptic cell-phone calls from a woman who yanks their chains and steers their minute-to-minute fates by changing traffic lights from red to green, and posting personalized instructions on public LED signs blinking in their lines of sight at malls and airports. Law enforcers (Rosario Dawson and Billy Bob Thornton) track the duo, who look like terrorists. Director D.J. Caruso does outstanding chase scenes through Chicago nightscapes. I really liked how an action sequence is visualized as a flow chart. One chase occurs in an automated baggage-handling facility where the characters are routed this way and that, as if inside a Chutes-and-Ladders game. “Eagle Eye”—which climaxes with a cathartic poke-in-the eye—is made for panoptical paranoids. With Anthony Mackie, Michael Chiklis, Ethan Embry, Anthony Azizi and Cameron Boyce. 117m. Anamorphic 2.40 widescreen. (Bill Stamets)
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