The Circle

The Circle

Starring Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, John Boyega, Karen Gillan

Directed by James Ponsoldt

What is the movie about?
Based off a book by Dave Eggers, "The Circle" focuses on Mae Holland (Emma Watson), a lively young woman who is given the job of a lifetime at The Circle - a mixture between Apple and Google where everyone is under the age of thirty, they all speak technical jargon like their first language, and they're all into the hip, new trends.

The founders of the corporation are Eamon Bailey (Tom Hanks) and Tom Stenton (Patton Oswalt), who hold TED-like conferences where they announce the newest Circle ideas.  Their most recent idea involves a minuscule camera that can be placed anywhere and not only does it capture what it sees, but sends information back to the Circle. Even though the mysterious Ty Lafitte (John Boyega) warns Mae against this sort of tracking technology, she dives headfirst after said technology saves her from a near-fatal accident.

Mae quickly rises the ranks and gains the admiration of the founders, while earning the ire of her friend Annie (Karen Gillan), who gave her the job in the first place.  Mae begins involving herself in board meetings and even volunteers to be the test subject for their latest project - total transparency - by wearing a camera at all times and allowing her entire life to be recorded.  She is also able to get her parents - especially her father (Bill Paxton), who suffers from multiple sclerosis - on the medical plan, but they must also have their lives recorded as well.

Soon Mae begins realizing not everyone likes having everything shown to the public, from her parents to her ex-boyfriend Mercer (Ellar Coltrane), and she learns deep secrets that the Circle didn't want released, but what will she do with this new information?

Who is involved in the movie?
Emma Watson stars as Mae Holland, the main character who is hired at The Circle and quickly raises to prominence by volunteering to have her entire life recorded.  Watson is always a consummate professional, but even she had very little to go on with the script, but she's still an ethereal beauty, this generation's Grace Kelly.
Tom Hanks stars as Eamon Bailey, the obvious bad guy in the film.  This is a rare deflection from Hanks's normal heroic everyman, but he's so generic that his character has nowhere to go, and no development to be made.  He's bad from the start, and he's bad until the end.  Even though the film was produced by his own production company, he looked like he was sleepwalking through his role, probably because it was so one-dimensional.
John Boyega stars as Ty Lafiette, a mysterious man who resides in The Circle but always stays on the outside, and he's the one who shows Mae the secrets The Circle is hiding.  Much like...well...everyone's character, he has nowhere to go with the script and remains a one-note character that could've been performed by any no-name actor.
Karen Gillan stars as Annie, Mae's best friend and the person who got her a job at The Circle.  She travels a lot for work and suffers burnout, especially when she sees Mae getting all the attention, yet still her character development is non-existent.
Patton Oswalt is Tom Stenton, the co-founder of The Circle and most obviously the bad guy that he could be twirling his handlebar mustache in the shadows and it wouldn't be surprising.
The film also features Ellar Coltrane as Mae's ex-boyfriend who hates technology, and Bill Paxton, unfortunately in his final film role before his death, as Mae's father who suffers from multiple sclerosis.

Why should you see this movie?
On paper, "The Circle" should've been a bonafide hit.   The story is as timely as they come - the issues of privacy and security are front and center around a fictionalized computer company that's eerily reminiscent of Apple or Google, and the prolific question is asked, "would you give up your privacy to feel more secure?"  The actors are a masterclass of the modern era, featuring Oscar winners and some of the hottest up-and-comers in the business.  On paper, the film would be amazing.

Unfortunately, it never left the page.

Instead, we got a jumbled mess of a mediocre film that showed signs of possible brilliance and dominance, but instead retreated within itself to not cause a roar but a whimper, and even though I was thankful it finally ended, I was still upset over how abrupt and nonsensical the movie did end.  Yet, I didn't really care to explore the ending further, and having been a few days out, I'm already beginning to wipe it from my memory.

The film feels like a prequel to a future movie where the world is now filled with greedy, fame-attention people who willingly record their every movement for the enjoyment of total strangers, where they forego privacy for publicity and security for super-stardom.  Emma Watson leads us down that rabbit hole as an intelligent - yet very naive - woman who allows herself to be filmed for the world to see.  She feels that this loss of privacy is what is needed to be secure, especially after she suffers an accident and is immediately rescued because hidden cameras saw her.

This is a very hard film to review because you expect the film to take a logical conclusion, but instead it spins in a circle (get it?) and left me confounded and confused, wondering what I had just watched and what point it ultimately served.  Some films are thisclose to greatness but misses the mark by a little, but The Circle missed it by miles.  Emma Watson always looks either confused or confident depending on whether or not she's being filmed.  Tom Hanks goes from one-note villain to one-note villain who believes knowing everything is perfection, and even secrets are lies.  The film never frees itself to soar to greatness, but instead is happy to muddle in mediocrity,

This was one of the films I couldn't wait to see, and now I can't wait to wipe it from my memory.  A total waste of talent and an intriguing premise.  A disaster of a film that could've been great.  A film that should never have been made.

When should you see this movie?
When the drone outside your home tells you to.

Where does this movie fall on the grading scale?
D+