The Circle

I was looking forward to a demonic Tom Hanks but it didn’t happen! The plot about installing Big Brother in every household wasn’t bad, but the film ends at the very moment when it could at last have started to operate in the nicely presented world. Emma Watson is pleasantly down to earth, but that’s more or less it. P.S. I liked the clean design of all of the apps shown. (04/18/2020)

Interesting in places and makes you think about halfway through (the election), but in the end it is still a predictable routine with a sniffing finale, in which you will learn everything in a few dozen minutes. I would expect something bolder than such a simple critique of all those internets. Tom Hanks was great, Emma Watson less so... And John Boyega's character? Deus ex machina, nothing else. (02/03/2019)

After spending two hours on things that a proper thriller would use as a starting point or additional motifs, The Circle’s plot ends at the moment when a proper thriller would only start to escalate. I commend the fact that the film points out the loss of privacy and corporatism of today’s interconnected world, but the way it does this is transparent and naive. At least Emma Watson is nice to look at. Her sober acting give the film some character, thus saving it. (05/11/2017)

An interesting theme outlining a near and quite likely future, but it's all made in such a lousy way that it gets boring at times. And here I was thinking I couldn’t possibly be bored by such a subject. It is terribly filmed, its cast is ridiculous and the writing poor. Why? For starters, the characters are seriously underdeveloped. I'm no expert on screenplays or Film Studies student, but I think that screenwriters should have a clear idea of the characters’ development, motivations, dilemmas, and sooner or later there should be at least a hint of sense or justification to their actions. None of that happens in The Circle. Things just occur for no particular reason. There is no hidden mystery about this, it's just terribly written, plain and simple. Let’s not forget about the second reason. The movie also boasts of being a thriller, but when a movie lasts 110 minutes, you’d expect there to be suspense earlier than just a few minutes before its ending. Plus, it all ends with the part of the story where movies of a similar type are normally just getting started. I don't mean to be overly critical, but The Circle is a hot candidate for the disappointment of the year. (09/12/2017)

The film has an incredibly good theme, but there were simply too many elements here that bothered me and spoiled the overall experience. First and foremost it was the character of Emma Watson, who I just didn't find good, her development odd, and her motivations lacking. Then there was also the smallness of the theme, which seemed to have only local impacts, not global ones, with just a few hints. But it will make you think, a lot. And that is a good thing. (05/01/2017)