The Circle ★★½
SOCIAL media thriller The Circle is full of interesting ideas, but the overall execution lets the film down.
Based on a 2013 novel by Dave Eggers, it’s is a cautionary dystopian tale about the dangers of taking our reliance on technology too far.
It focuses on a young university graduate, Mae Holland, whose friend Annie gets her an entry-level job in customer service at a powerful technology company called The Circle.
Annie has been with the company for several years and has become part of a senior management team, an inner circle if you like, that acts as a sounding board and ideas generator.
The Circle is run by a billionaire named Bailey and resembles a cross between Google and Facebook with thousands of young enthusiastic employees interacting throughout a sprawling work and accommodation campus.
To the consternation of her parents and a sort-of boyfriend, Mae’s life starts to become consumed by work and she is quickly earmarked for advancement.
Her rise eventually brings Mae directly into the orbit of Bailey and two of his other partners. While Bailey is intent on using Mae as another method of changing the world with technological advancement, a silent partner, Ty, warns her the real intention is to build wealth and influence regardless of the human consequences.
That description is probably sounding more like the book, which I haven’t read but by most accounts is an entertaining and thought-provoking read. The film, on the other hand, never ties the underlying story and characters down into a satisfying narrative trajectory.
Key sub-plots involving the company’s introduction of new technologies and products and eventual mismanagement with dangerous and highly debatable outcomes are generally handled well.
For example, SeeChange starts out with powerful cameras the size of marbles being used to monitor a beach and send real-time, quality video surf reports, but becomes a tool to monitor the actions of elected officials around-the-clock.
Another powerful search engine aimed at tracking down fugitives from justice has dire consequences for one of the key people in Mae’s life.
These extended sequences are the highlights. Where the film fails is in fleshing out its characters and taking the narrative to a satisfying conclusion. My understanding is that the film’s underwhelming climax is different to that of the book.
While Emma Watson does a decent job as Mae, the script takes some big leaps in her character arc in an unbelievably short time while Bailey, played by Tom Hanks, is just as much of an enigma at the start of the film as when he is first introduced.
Similarly, we never get to discover much at all about Mae’s friend Annie, the silent partner Ty (John Boyega) and Bailey’s main adviser Stenton (Patton Oswalt). A sub-plot involving Mae’s parents also amounts to little .
Of the supporting cast, Ellar Coltrane probably impresses most in the small but important role of Mae’s boyfriend Mercer.
The Circle is directed by James Ponsoldt who probably achieved the gig based on the critical reaction to The Spectacular Now (2013), which I haven’t seen but has a lot of fans.
Ponsoldt and Eggers combined on the screenplay but it needed a stronger, guiding hand. Either that or the studio should have turned it into a six-part television series.