Get out as fast as you can!
One of the many problems with The Circle, and I emphasize the word MANY, is that it doesn’t know what its goal is: Is it an attack on Apple, the endless craving of new technology, or the disappearance of privacy? Regardless of what its aims were, The Circle is too blunt and on the nose in its approach to any of the above ideas. So much so that any kind of discussion about it is kinda pointless.What’s left for the film is its worth as a middling tech thriller without any thrills, and as a vehicle for its main star. Yet, saddled with a main character that starts off as uninteresting before becoming flat out insufferable, The Circle doesn’t even work on that simple level.
In The Circle, struggling call center employee Mae (Emma Watson) thinks her problems have all been solved when her friend Annie (Karen Gillan) lands her a job at the world’s most famous tech company. Mae’s new job means more money and benefits for her and her parents (Bill Paxton and Glenne Headley). However, disapproval comes in the form of Mae’s childhood friend Mercer (Ellar Coltrane) and Ty (John Boyega), a world-famous programmer now living off the grid. Despite their warnings, Mae falls under the leadership of The Circle’s top executives, Bailey (Tom Hanks) and Stenton (Patton Oswalt), who convince Mae to become the new face of the company at a price she may not be able to afford.
The Circle takes all the natural steps a film of this kind would take in terms of plot turns and twists, killing any chances whatsoever for anything close to suspense. The main problem with the film is that it’s too dated to be relevant and too timely to be throwback. Its commentary is obvious: Nothing is sacred and privacy is a memory more than a reality. Even Mercer’s criticism of current technology, equating stickers and unicorns to the interest level of school children, feels tired and trite. Maybe the film knows this as it makes its points in embarrassingly heavy-handed ways. The instance where Mae is grilled with smiles and concern by a pair of supervisors about why she isn’t participating at company weekend social events starts off as being on the nose before launching into SNL territory. Equally cringe-worthy is the scene showing Mercer telling Mae how the kind of world she’s now a part of is corrupt and unhealthy as her Circle co-workers are filming them on phones and tablets.
To its credit, the film does earn points in terms of spelling out the reasoning behind Mae’s motivations. The Circle points out how the promise of safety and security in terms of a steady paycheck and benefits are enough to sell everything, especially in this day and age. Also, the idea about surrendering yourself to technology as a person lies to themselves by insisting they’re still themselves rings eerily true. Mae is certainly representative of the desperation felt by countless millennials who will likewise go to the greatest of lengths as a way of finding their place in the world. On some level, who wouldn’t? The Circle does a good enough job of making the majority of its target audience argue what they’d do were they in the main heroine’s position. It’s easy enough to justify Mae’s actions and motivations and compromises if the personal need was strong enough.
It’s such a shame to see such great actors be brought down by incredibly lame material. Watson is the film’s lead, but she’s given nothing to do but more or less react to everything happening around her, rather than participate in it, resulting in her most lifeless performance yet. On the flip side, Hanks proves the perfect person to play Bailey, a figure who is always “on.” The actor nails that Steve Jobs mix of genius and relatability that can easily be turned around in a rare heavy role. The Circle offers up two potential male leads in Boyega and Coltrane, but doesn’t do anything with them. Meanwhile it’s so easy to forget Oswalt is even in this film since his part requires him to do close to nothing that’s memorable, while Gillan doesn’t have anything to do but play to the cliches in her character.
The real tragedy is seeing great talent such as Paxton and Headly in such throwaway parts. The Circle was the final feature project for both actors who passed away earlier this year. With a laundry list of solid work between them which included Aliens and Dick Tracy, among many others, The Circle is a sad farewell to a pair of truly unforgettable artists.
The Circle is based on a novel from Dave Eggers and is the third of his works that Hanks has been involved in. While the writer made pure poetry out of Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” for the screen, last year’s A Hologram for the King’s life-affirming aspirations never quite reached their goals, despite solid efforts. Yet The Circle takes everything good about Eggers’s skill as a storyteller and diminishes it to the point of unrecognizability in its pedestrian treatment of its characters and their journeys. “Knowing is good; but knowing everything is better,” Bailey points out as he addresses his many minions. A strong notion for sure, but it hardly rings shocking anymore. Since we already know everything the film will say before it says it, the mantra proves itself as worthless as a piece of dated technology.
The Package
There are a couple of behind-the-scenes featurettes which prove almost as lifeless as the film itself. The one bright spot on the special features is a specially-made tribute to Paxton led by Hanks, who shares plenty of fond memories about their friendship. Watching one legendary actor lovingly remember another in such a touching way is almost worth the price of the disc alone.
The Lowdown
The most obvious movie of the year, The Circle is nowhere as innovative or probing as the fictional technology it boasts.
The Circle is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.
