Review of Circle of Friends (1995) by Dawdlingpoet — 28 Nov 2021

This is a borderline overly sweet film, in terms of elements of sentimentality and on ocassion an over-use of light cheesy music. The plot is hardly brand new, although I did find it interesting considering its set in the past, in the 1950s -I certainly haven't seen many coming of age type films set in Ireland that weren't of a modern day setting.

The plot pace is quite slow but its an easy enough watch, if slightly bland. It does feature some sex related scenes, although nothing explicitly graphic is shown, its more implied but some partial nudity is shown and noises heard from a distance on ocassion, which would account for the 15 rating its given in the UK. Its almost got the feel of a slow soap, rather than a drama about it somehow. I liked a number of the characters, although it has to be said that the person who plays the archetypal/stereotyped bad guy role (I'll not name him so as not to spoil the film for others) plays him very well, as when I saw him appear in scenes I felt tempted to shout out 'boo!' as if it were a panto!.

If it were a bit faster paced I'd have enjoyed it more - it was an alright watch, an easy watch but a bit too bland for my personal taste and the cheesy aspect obviously didn't do it any favours either. There are some nice landscape shots of Ireland however - it certainly harks back to a cosier time, or so it'd have you believe.