Review of The Circle (2017) by Kristofer H — 27 Apr 2017

Proper Perspective: Hollywood grabs another piece of known IP to transpose it to the big screen in this sort of thriller and sort of drama. All the principal pieces are in order for this to be a layup of a good movie, but did it hit the mark? Let's talk about The Circle...

Official Synopsis: A woman lands a dream job at a powerful tech company called the Circle, only to uncover a nefarious agenda that will affect the lives of her friends, family and that of humanity.

Plot: After Mae Holland gets a great new job working for a company that basically runs the world, and after meeting a mysterious man and experiencing the positives and evils of technology, she begins to question it all.

Take: Full disclosure here, I am one of those, "I read the book. I loved the book. And the movie dramatically undercut the book" people.

Immediately the movie starts off and lets you know if you were one of the people that read the book that this is going to be a cookie cutter movie with cookie cutter characters. Good guys and bad guys. They found a way to over simplify a plot, take the teeth out of the reveal, and remove what made this book so darn captivating in the first place - a duality with technology where it can be great and ultimately when used incorrectly, can be very scary.

In all fairness the book had 493 pages to explore the characters and plot, while the movie clocked in at 110 minutes. Which in screen writing terms means about 110 pages.

The trailers already revealed the "big twist" and who certain characters are. The movie is simple, a naïve young woman starts a dream job and immediately questions all their corks and protocols. There was not a grace period where she accepted things. There was not a questioning phase, she went from "this place is heaven" to "I need to expose the truth" in record time.

As a movie this is a good paint by numbers "thriller" that a certain demographic will be able to latch onto. Which is a shame, considering the source material and actors involved.

Tom Hanks (Cast Away, Saving Private Ryan) was good as one of the founders of The Circle, Bailey. Even Patton Oswalt (Big Fan, Ratatouille) as the other founder Stenton was a passable performance in a more serious role for the comedian. The late Bill Paxton and Glenne Headly were good in limited roles as the parents of the main character, Emma Watson (Harry Potter, Beauty and the Beast). Across the board the acting was good, but the generic characters they played are a casualty of the script (James Ponsoldt) and direction (James Ponsoldt).

I was a fan of The End of the Tour, in fact that was one of my favorite overall movies of 2015. This movie could have benefited from a more experienced screen writer to allow Ponsoldt to focus on the direction, both of which suffered in this film.

I'm going to stop writing now and go re-read the book again.

Recommendation: Look if you have read the book and HAVE to see the adaptation, then go for it. If you have not read the book this is exactly as I described, a cookie cutter thriller with not much under the surface. Go see The Circle if you so desire, I am on the fence.

Why not make a movie about modern technology and use a different name? Just a thought...