This week we delved back into the bargain bin for our weekends viewing pleasure! The movie for the night was “The Circle” starring Tom Hanks, Emma Watson, Bill Paxton, Karen Gillan and Patton Oswalt. This film, when released did not receive very many accolades or garner a lot of money at the box office; according to IMDB, it cost 18 million to make, and only earned just over 40 million world wide, barely enough to cover the cost of the film. However, it did have Tom Hanks on the cover. Now, he is probably one of this generations (which I mean mine) favourite actors. With such blockbusters as Apollo 13, Forrest Gump, Castaway in his resume, this film was sure to be a hit, right!?
Well unfortunately, this was more of an Emma Watson vehicle (best known as Hermoine Grainger in Harry Potter films), and Tom was relegated to more of a supporting role in. The premise of the film is that Mae (Watson) gets a job at a powerful social networking company, much like Facebook, with the help of one of her friends, Annie (Gillan). Mae (Watson) not only needs the job for herself, but also for her family, as her father Vinnie (Paxton) is suffering from MS. Starting in the help desk, she quickly makes a name for herself and gets noticed by Bailey (Hanks) and Stenton (Oswalt), the power behind the company. Her initiative helps lead the company to where Bailey and Stenton really want it. Ultimately, to control aspects of all our lives and get all inhabitants of the planet to be a member of their service (The Circle). In order to facilitate this, Mae (Watson) decides to become “transparent”, which means that her whole life and those who are in contact with her are streamed 24/7 to the world. In short, the concept of the service (Circle) is to basically gather as much information and ultimately invade everyone’s personal privacy. Naturally as this is a film and not real life, Mae (Watson) finds the error of her ways and uses her newfound influence to dethrone Bailey and Stenton from the company and show it for what it really is.
What did we like about the movie? The concept itself, it generated a great deal of conversation between my wife and I on how technology is stealing your privacy, and invading your life etc. The ideas of the film, while not new (i.e. George Orwell’s 1984) on how “big brother” is watching you and making sure that everything you do is “proper”, it modernized the concept and put into situations that were completely relatable to everyone i.e. the effect and influence of social media. In 20 years or so, as social media changes and morphs, this film will probably not last the test of time and become irrelevant.
What didn’t we like about the film? Tom Hanks was in a supporting role here, he could have been developed far greater and become more integral to the film. He was used only to spur Mae (Watson’s) initiative and steer her to what he ultimately wanted, have complete access to everyone, everywhere, all the time. By having a subordinate be the enabler, he could look better in everyone’s eyes saying he only provided what the people wanted. His character was almost two dimensional, and the only real emotion showed was at the completion of the film. There was a great deal more that Hanks could have given to the film, but alas, we did not write the script or direct the film.
Sadly, this was Bill Paxton’s last film as he passed away after completion. Normally an outstanding actor with some incredible roles, Vinnie (Mae’s father) was not one of them. His character and acting were awful and very hard to watch. Thankfully, his repertoire of films is vast, and for fans of Paxton, this film should do nothing to tarnish his reputation.
Now let’s look at the main character, Mae (Watson). Her performance was lackluster; I find her always very weepy, and with that emotion in place, she was not a strong character in this movie (or for that matter, most of her movies). She peaked in Harry Potter, and still has not achieved the same level of acting in any of her other current roles.
Karen Gillan (Annie) played a minor role in this movie, basically just the friend who gets Mae a position at the company, where for some unknown reason, we find out later that she is maybe an executive. If she was an Exec, her role would have been very different in this part of the film. But maybe that is just my perception. Yet, it seems that as the movie progresses, she becomes more disenchanted with the “The Circle” appears stressed and burnt out. At the end of the film, I was still trying to figure out what she actually did, and what her role was besides getting her friend hired. I enjoyed her role in Jumanji and was disappointed to see her in this.
Patton Oswalt (Stenton), played an even smaller supporting role to Hanks (Bailey) as one of his executives who is in the know on how “The Circle” is operating. He does not do much here, agrees profusely with Hanks (Bailey) and gets surprised at the end. Nothing really supportive in my opinion and his role could have been excluded entirely and it really would not have affected the film.
Overall…hmmm, let me see. We loved the concept of the film, a nouveau “1984” that does show the hazards of some of the social media platforms that are so prevalent today. However, the film itself was lacking. Dialogue sputtered at times, and there was a definite misuse of talent (Specifically Hanks and Paxton). So if you want to be entertained….well I would skip this film. However, if you want to watch something that might stimulate some conversation or ideas afterwards (regardless that the movie was not the best), then this could be for you.
So…our rating
For the film 3.5/10
For the concept 8/10.
Till next time!
Hans
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