The Circle

Score:  ***1/2 out of ***** (B-)

Directed by James Ponsoldt
Starring Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, John Boyega, Karen Gillan, et. al.
Running time: 110 minutes
Rated PG-13

Long Story Short:  The Circle, based on the novel by Dave Eggers, tells the tale of a young woman who joins a huge social media tech company and quickly becomes the public face placed in front of its private ambitions.  Emma Watson and Tom Hanks provide watchable, intriguing characters but the plot is obvious and its message and direction inconsistent.  Still, there are plenty of good moments throughout, making it worth viewing at some point, if not an essential theater experience.


Mae Holland (Watson) is a young woman struggling to get by day to day, let alone launch a fulfilling, exciting career.  One day she gets her lucky break, though, when a college friend, Annie (Gillan) sets her up with an interview at the world's largest tech company, the Circle.  Mae gets in, and is dazzled as Annie takes her on a whirlwind tour of the Circle's massive, utopian campus.  Although she is thrilled with her new job, Mae returns home regularly to spend time with her parents and others, including childhood friend Mercer (Coltrane).  She is taken aback when the Circle shows a desire to be more than just her place of employment, but also like a second family.  Mae finds herself drawn closer and closer, to everything from the cheerful atmosphere to Circle leader Eamon Bailey's (Hanks) vision.  As Mae's own family grows worried about this closer connection, Mae herself is becoming an essential part of the Circle's mysterious mission - as millions around the world follow her every day life.

The Circle has an impressive cast, one not fully utilized but which still gives the film some of its strongest elements.  Emma Watson is the lead as Mae, a young woman drawn quickly from obscurity into a prominent position at a powerful tech company.  Watson does a good job and was a wise choice for the role.  She is particularly convincing as the unprecedentedly visible symbol of the Circle; as one of the (real) world's most famous actresses, she knows all too well both the adoration of a crowd but also the personal consequences of that attention.  Watson struggles a bit more with her early start as a "nobody", and her development is inconsistent, but this has at least as much to do with the script as her performance.  Tom Hanks is very impressive in the Steve Jobs-like role of Circle leader Eamon Bailey.  As always, he is quite charismatic, and easily makes Eamon seem a comforting presence even as the words he speaks become more and more disturbing.  Unfortunately, John Boyega is wasted in a small role that serves only as an unnecessary plot device.  And Karen Gillan and Ellar Coltrane, both fine actors, seem thrown off by the poor script and respond with equally poor, overacted performances.

The Circle is a thriller that, while largely failing as a drama, has its fair share of interesting moments and observations on the modern world.  The overall structure of the plot is familiar: a naive young person joins a massive, apparently benevolent yet mysterious organization, which uses her until she realizes its true intentions.  Unfortunately, this structure is rapidly apparent, removing much of the mystery.  On a related note, the film is too often both unsubtle and exaggerated in showing the motives or background for various developments; yet at other times, decisions (particularly from Mae) are jarringly inexplicable.  Boyega's character, a former Circle leader disillusioned by the company's direction (yet still always hanging out on campus for some reason), meets Mae at random times throughout to bluntly point out the obvious dangers to her.  Yet Mae continues on her path, if for no other reason than to keep the film going, right up until a very sudden and unconvincing ending.

Still, there are good elements in this film, too.  Hanks's very performance helps show how the Circle's omnipresent surveillance - while obviously extreme - could in fact appeal to both those in power as well as the masses in a variety of ways.  As for the Circle's culture, it is a clever exaggeration of the Google or Facebook utopian stereotype.  One particularly good scene has Mae confronted with two smiling Circle employees forcing her to get with the program - in the most passive aggressive way possible.  Later, when Mae becomes the face of the company, scenes depicting her comings and goings are made fascinating by a constant stream of social media posts that float around her on screen.  And the film's most emotional scene, involving Mae's childhood friend, may strike some as unrealistic, but was both effective and all too plausible to me.

***

The Circle had a lot of promising elements going for it, and while its failures make it an overall disappointment, it's still an intriguing film.  Social media is with us constantly, and news reports about the dangers of this are regular, yet seeing it put on film is still valuable.  The Circle proves the danger of it as well, falling prey to certain cliches and not presenting the most subtle, effective warnings about - and possibilities of - the technology.  With some impressive performances, particularly Tom Hanks's, and some well done parts here and there, it's not difficult to accept the failings yet focus instead on both the entertaining and enlightening features.  Certainly not an essential theater viewing option, The Circle will make for a nice change of pace choice at home.



By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52503603