“The Circle” Review
“The Circle,” starring Emma Watson and Tom Hanks, is at first glace a movie to get excited about. There’s a rockstar cast straight from a google-analytics trending list and familiar themes of technological over-integration and legislative transparency. That’s more than enough to fill theater seats, but this near-future drama-thriller crumples under its own weight, disappointing viewers with half-assed performances, misplaced characters and a self-contradicting statement.
Prepare yourself, there are spoilers ahead.
We open to Mae Holland—played by actor/activist Emma Watson—rejecting an incoming call on her kayak. She’s out on the water to get away from it all–her unrewarding customer service job, and the stress of having a father with multiple sclerosis. Before long though, she lands a job at The Circle, a bay-area tech/social-media company that looks and operates just like Google, Facebook, Apple, etc.
The Circle has all that you’d expect it would, plants in the offices, on-campus employee events, and weekly seminars called ‘Dream Fridays’. It’s here where we meet founder Eamon Bailey (Tom Hanks), who introduces a new product: a pocket-sized, satellite-transmitting camera that can be placed nearly anywhere to upload and store video for The Circle.
By now the audience has already realized the infinite privacy issues with such an invention, but in the film the only one who appears to be even slightly bothered is Mae. Bothered, maybe, but not enough to object. She doesn’t protest as she ingests a medical tracking chip and is urged to increase her social-media presence. After Mae’s life is saved by the company’s cameras, the movie takes an unexpected—and poorly executed—turn. As part of an experiment initiated by Eamon, Mae becomes ‘fully transparent,’ live-streaming her every move through her own little camera.
As her success and popularity soar, Mae begins climbing the corporate ladder and pushing boundaries further and further. Circle accounts become necessary to vote, and their surveillance technology blankets the world. “Secrets are lies,” she insists, met with far-fetched approval.
Viewers could get past Watson’s second-rate American-accent if her acting wasn’t so uninspired, but it’s not like the script or directing gave any cast member much of an opportunity to shine. Glenn Kenny of The New York Times points out, “Emma Watson has to spend way too much time looking concerned while staring at various screens.”
Other performances weren’t much better. Playing Mae’s hipster friend was Ellar Coltrane, who apparently didn’t take any acting classes in the twelve years spent filming “Boyhood.” John Boyega’s character didn’t make sense at all, clearly one of the many disconnects in the films translation from novel to movie. As expected, Tom Hanks was terrific and trusting, almost elevating the movie to ‘watchable’ status.
Still, the most bothersome thing about “The Circle” is that its message defeats itself. The film spends a ton of time eerily pointing out the dangers of one company seeing and controlling everything, then it defends the concept. When Mae debuts Soul Search, a program that can scan cameras and social media accounts all across the planet for an individual, her friend Mercer is killed. Rather than serving as a much-needed wake-up call, she pushes the tech even further, leaving the audience confused and unsympathetic.
The final scene looks almost exactly like the first, with Mae out on her kayak. Except this time, a swarm of drones flies around her. She simply smiles and says “hello.”
The way she so lovingly embraces big brother is not only abrupt and unsatisfying, it is flat-out not believable. The best part about the ending is that it’s the ending, meaning no more live-stream comments distractingly parading the screen.
Though, portraying accurate internet comments was at least one success of “The Circle.” When Mae accidentally broadcasts her parents having sex, one reads, “Eating cheese from a year ago.”
Check out the trailer below:
