Ironically I work for a tech company that if you really bent and twisted could look a little like The Circle only way less evil...I swear... The Circle seems incredibly timely and you know 30 years from now, even as campy as it ended up being, it could be considering a classic ahead of it's time simply because it has such a pertinent message to our world right now. It could be this generations social commentary. Unfortunately for this movie it is completely lost in very poor character development, some really horrid acting and line delivery, a weak and unedited script, a horrible use of star Tom Hanks and forcing Emma Watson to try and hide her British accent meaning she has not enough lines to give her character depth. Even still, for some reason I didn't hate the film. I still found enough about it that I liked. The idea and concept behind The Circle is very believable and the tech they use while it seems a little outlandish is incredibly real. If you stop and think about Facebook/Twitter/Amazon/The Cloud things that connect the entire world, this film is not even remotely far-fetched.
I do believe Emma Watson has it in her to be a star. Fortunately for her Beauty and The Beast and it's 1B+ take will solidify her in Hollywood because it seems everything else she has tried falls flat. I don't think film makers are casting her correctly. She looks through this entire film like she is struggling with hiding her British accent. The dialog is really bad so it hurts her performance even worse. Still I like what they did with it, even if there wasn't enough time to really dig into her. Tom Hanks is the driving star power and is sorrowfully underused. Even still he comes onto screen and makes every scene he's in worthwhile. He's perfect as a low level villain of sorts who is more than close to real life. Ellar Coltrane might be one of the worst performances I've ever seen. Is this guy even an actor? As Watson's childhood best friend and sort of a focal point for Watson's development, he delivers his lines like a terrible Grade School actor. He is absolutely terrible and that is in addition to how bad the dialog is. His chemistry with Watson is literally non-existent. Glenne Headly, the late (amazing) Bill Paxton and Karen Gillan give the three best performances in the film. Paxton who plays Watson's father riddled with MS is fantastic! Similar to Hanks, Patton Oswalt is very underused as Hanks' partner in The Circle. He seems almost to have had his lines removed. And then you have John Boyega (you know the latest star of Star Wars) in an utterly pointless bizarre role where he stands in the back of rooms and looks broody. You would literally think they edited out huge portions of his character making it seem weird and disjointed.
I'm not sure who is responsible for ruining a film with such amazing potential. I know that director and co-writer James Ponsoldt does not have enough experience to handle something of this potential calibre. I would presume that Dave Eggers original novel is much better and I feel like it's probably a lot of editing and cooks in the kitchen that killed this adaptation. I still liked a few performances, I loved the message and working in the tech world for me it really was a little on the scary side. It's worth seeing but probably forgettable but the message behind it will likely cause it to stand the test of time. 6.5/10
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