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Why The Circle is the Best Satire That Never Was


          It’s clear The Circle is making some statement on the social media generation and our general reliance on connectivity in a globalized world, but exactly what that is is difficult to ascertain. The film, directed by James Ponsoldt, based on the novel by Dave Eggers is all-round a curious failure of a movie, in that rather than little problems that need to be fixed, it’s only a couple, albeit major changes to its structure that would have made it work.
          Mae Holland (Emma Watson) is a tech worker who manages through a friend to get a job with a behemoth internet company known as The Circle. The company’s founder Eamon Bailey (Tom Hanks) preaches security, connectedness, and the growth of human progress through the new technology being pioneered there. As Mae becomes more entrenched in the world of The Circle, it becomes apparent the innovations being made are not ethical.
          Emma Watson is exploding right now and I don’t think that’s a good thing. While her performance here is better than in Beauty and the Beast, it’s not by a lot. She comes off fairly disingenuous in a number of scenes and is never able to hook the audience into the drama. In Watsons’ defence, based on a few story elements, this is a hard character to make relatable, but it certainly doesn’t help that her performance seems out of place and some of her line deliveries and expressions are awkward. What’s worse is she’s surrounded by characters who I’d have preferred as the protagonists. John Boyega is criminally underused. When he is on screen, he’s as cool as ever and his character has an interesting pseudo-Mark Zuckerberg backstory, but he doesn’t appear much and really doesn’t factor into the plot a whole lot. Likewise, Karen Gillan’s actually pretty good in this and though her character is little more than Mae’s best friend, she’s someone who has a more solid personality. Maybe it was Watsons’ poor acting that accentuated Gillan’s performance or Gillan’s good acting that accentuated Watson’s poor performance, but either way whenever they were together it was easier to gravitate towards Gillan. And yes, it is a little surreal for sci-fi fans to see Hermione from Harry Potter, Finn from Star Wars, and Amy from Doctor Who together in one movie. Tom Hanks is of course good at playing the deceptively charming down-to-earth Bailey, but that’s just because Hanks is so naturally charming and such a first rate actor. This movie is the first film I’ve seen Ellar Coltrane in since Boyhood, and unfortunately it doesn’t do him any favours. His performance is pretty bland and devoid of real investment. Patton Oswalt is an interesting choice as Bailey’s co-founder (the Wozniak to his Steve Jobs), and Glenne Headly plays Mae’s mother. Mae’s father is played by the late Bill Paxton in his last movie role, and though he’s good, it’s a shame he couldn’t go out on something better.
          The most glaring problem of The Circle is the structure of the story and the intent. There’s a lot of real-life allegory to this film: Bailey is clearly based on Steve Jobs, and The Circle itself a thinly veiled version of Apple. And the central conflict of the film is the ethics of The Circle and those who work within it. Privacy is the most notable issue, as the Circle’s technology clearly invades personal liberty and security, something which most of the people around Mae are completely fine with. However the fatal mistake is that The Circle takes itself seriously when it really ought to be more of a satire. It expects you to believe this kind of surveillance would be condoned. But more than that, there are scenes that clearly indicate how ridiculous this situation is. Mae is approached by two people who already know of her fathers’ MS and is pressured by them into employing further applications of The Circle, but they’re played very over-the-top in their convictions and mannerisms. Bailey talks about the inherent goodness in humanity, yet we still see that users of The Circle are leaving stupid comments and being trolls. There’s even a suggestion that Bailey’s effectively trying to take over the world. And most unbelievably, at one point Mae agrees to essentially live-stream her whole life, and it’s by far the dumbest choice I’ve seen a protagonist in a movie make in a long time. All of these would work in a movie that was intentionally mocking internet and social media culture, but not in what’s trying to be a serious thriller. Maybe if this was written by Michael Crichton in the ‘90s, it could have succeeded, but as is, it’s really disappointing.
          As a quasi-totalitarian piece of science fiction, The Circle should have aspired to be the next Brazil rather than the next 1984. Too little of the plot and character choices make sense in a modern context to illicit any serious drama, and the film additionally suffers from inconsistency and a really bad ending. There are a few good performances, such as from the ever reliable Hanks but it’s not nearly enough to lighten the weight this sinking ship of lost potential.

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