The movie THE CIRCLE was released with little fanfare and
not much push resulting in mediocre box office returns. With Emma Watson
starring fresh off of her success in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST as well as her fan
favorite status from the Harry Potter films and Tom Hanks, a major Hollywood
star, one would wonder why that was the case. It was also based on a
bestselling novel. So what happened?
The movie stars Watson as Mae, a young woman struggling to
get by. She works as at a phone center taking customer complaint calls, drives
a beat up old car and helps in taking care of her parents Vinnie and Bonnie
(Bill Paxton and Glenne Headly). Vinnie suffers from MS and Bonnie spends most
of her time taking care of him. Mae’s fortunes take a turn for the better when
she receives a call from her friend Annie (Karen Gillan) telling her she got
her an interview for The Circle.
Mae arrives and passes her interview with flying colors and
finds herself a new employee there. The Circle is a high tech company that has
an involvement in every aspect of their employee’s lives. Think Facebook or
Google on steroids. Those who work there live on sight in housing created for
them. Concerts, nightclubs, restaurants and more exist on the grounds of the
company for them to enjoy.
It goes beyond that as well as we and Mae soon learn. Her
job is to handle complaints people have about the services the company offers.
Each complaint is measured in how well she handles the call and in getting
those complainants to take a survey rating her handling of the situation.
Everyone strives for a 100% approval rating. Each person is also to have an
online presence as well with an open page for all others to see and comment on.
They are encouraged to post as much information there as possible.
At a concert one night Mae meets a young man who is part of
the Circle. They meet again later and for some reason he trusts her and takes
her down to see something she isn’t supposed to know about. Leaving behind all
item provided to her (she wears a bracelet that monitors her physical
well-being non-stop) he shows her a vast underground area that he tells her
will one day house data collection equipment that will monitor everyone,
something he didn’t design the system for. He turns out to be Ty (John Boyega),
the designer of the program that started The Circle.
Mae catches the eye of company figurehead and leader Bailey
(Tom Hanks). He eventually talks her into introducing the newest item The
Circle plans to introduce, taking people into full disclosure and transparency.
It’s a small camera he shared during a speech with the employees earlier that
can be found located around the world now and the new goal called SeeChange is
to have people wear one 24/7 to share their lives. Mae is the first to do so.
She benefits from this, firstly in confidence and
popularity. Everyone knows her, everyone sends her comments. Her parents are
put on insurance that covers her father’s medical expenses. She is elevated in
status in The Circle. But beneath it all something is just not quite right. Is
The Circle the be all to end all or is there something more nefarious going on
under the surface. Is this an altruistic company set on helping the world or is
there an ulterior motive? And will a life changing event that happens with another
new project help Mae to make the right decision of where to move forward?
The movie works on a number of levels. Technically it is
enjoyable to watch. The sights and sounds of The Circle are appealing and it
would be easy to see why anyone would be seduced into working for such a
company. They seem to care about your every whim, provide all that you need and
help with matters in your life outside as well. Their goals seem to be to
create a different and better world where politicians are held accountable and
will use their products to prove that. But this tech savvy film also allows
that there are almost always worms inside every “apple”.
In a world filled with selfies and automatic status updates
on platforms like Facebook and Instagram it’s easy to see where the question of
just how much data is collected and used against us would make a great story.
How many times have you logged into an account to find some suggestion of what
you might enjoy reading or purchasing? That is the world of The Circle but much
more intrusive. It should make for a good thriller but the problem I found was
that so much time was spent promoting The Circle and setting things up that the
thriller end of it doesn’t happen until far too late in the film, almost the
last 20 minutes.
The acting by all involved is believable but nothing is
outstanding. Hanks seems to glide through effortlessly here. His character
seems to have just one emotion. Watson does well but her emotions run to two
extremes, overjoyed and upset. She is better than this. Gillan offers the best
display of acting here. Boyega is completely wasted in what I would consider a
cameo role.
While it’s entertaining enough to spend the time watching in
the end THE CIRCLE will most likely be a movie long forgotten in a short period
of time. It should have been a movie that got people talking about the abuse of
social media. Instead it offers some good questions that most will likely never
consider having never seen the movie. On a sad note, this was the last film
released for both Paxton and Headley. They deserved bigger and better roles.
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