Review of The Circle (2017) by Wayne P — 30 Apr 2017

I saw The Circle and I have to say I was severely disappointed. The Circle flounders around like the catch of the day but not even a fresh catch. It is more like about 5 minutes after when the fish is suffocating and gasping for air pitifully.

The trailers of The Circle completely mislead. There is no 90s movie style conspiracy with build-up, drama, intrigue and thrills. This movie was like watching paint dry. The protagonists were hardly believable, the acting was awful and the antagonists were hardly antagonists. This movie lacked any structure, form or personality throughout.

I admit that I have not read the book and am judging purely on the merit of the movie alone. Perhaps if you read the book, the glaring pot holes and fragmented storyline is filled by your memory of the subject matter but that is a terrible way to make a film. Emma Watson falls flat, perhaps through no fault of her own but there are only so many times that someone can look concerned at a camera or off into the distance before you don't care anymore. The relationships she had attempted to tug on the viewers' heartstrings but failed because they simply were not well developed. Her friends were supposed to be close but their social bonds dissolved too quickly and too easily. The fragmented storytelling compounded this issue as someone would not be seen for what seemed like a half an hour and then suddenly be thrust into the spotlight with a gripe of some sort that made no sense and had no development time. That said, Bill Paxton and Tom Hanks were good in my opinion for their respective roles. I just wish that the movie dedicated to a fallen great actor was not a heaping pile of dung.

Verdict: Pass on this one. Watch it for free on television so that you may gripe about it as well. There are many times that a review blasts a movie and it's simply a matter of opinion. The issues with The Circle were literal and structural and logical and they were far too numerous.