听 
If a bunch of smart, spotty schoolboys, who by definition had yet to learn about Real Life, had devised "Circus" during their mid-morning break, you'd at least applaud them for their imagination. As it is, "Circus" has been thought up (not that thinking seems to be their chief concern) by writer David Logan and director Rob Walker who, as far as we know, have indeed left school.
So keen are they to tap into the hipness, stylishness, edgy comedy and unnerving violence of "Reservoir Dogs", "Pulp Fiction" and "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" that they have apparently forgotten that "Circus" is meant to be set in the real world. The world, in fact, is Brighton, Logan's home town, where Leo (John Hannah) is an egotistical con-man, Lily (Famke Janssen) is his ice-cold wife, Troy (Eddie Izzard) is a sadistic bookie and Bruno (Brian Conley) is the grinning, thuggish gang boss who lords it over all.
Characters who start double-crossing each other end up triple- and quadruple-crossing everyone else to the point of maximum confusion, which is where the audience comes in. Why is he/she doing that to him/her? Gosh - where did he spring from?
You can almost hear Logan/Walker thinking "Wow, this would be fun, let's try it", without any regard for the coherence or common sense of the whole piece. Brian Conley can be taken as a metaphor for the entire film: he first appears as the cruel torturer of his accountant (Christopher Biggins) - a serious, nasty, tense moment - before quickly spiralling off into absurdity as he becomes a cockney caricature. A smattering of jolly moments and the very handsome gloss can't shore up this shaky, and slackly directed, enterprise.
