All audience reviews of The Circle

The Circle is a techno-thriller motion picture directed by James Ponsoldt and is based on Dave Eggers book by the same name. The film stars Emma Watson and Tom Hanks, with John Boyega, Karen Gillan, Ellar Coltrane, Patton Oswalt, Glenne Headly, and Bill Paxton in supporting roles.
Mae Holland played by Emma Watson lands up a job as a customer service executive in the world’s largest and most powerful tech and social media company- The Circle and of course, Mae sees this as an opportunity of a lifetime, unaware of what she is actually getting into. As Eamon Bailey, played by Tom Hanks, who is the CEO of The Circle so convincingly and intriguingly points out the company’s motto that “knowing is good, but knowing everything is better.” The film starts with Eamon Bailey introducing the idea of SeeChange to the circlers at the company’s meeting which uses small cameras placed anywhere to provide real-time video. Mae gradually embraces the circle’s hectic but yet mysterious and attractive atmosphere and as she rises through the ranks, she is encouraged by Eamon Bailey to engage in a groundbreaking experiment that pushes the boundaries of privacy, ethics and ultimately her personal freedom. Her participation in the experiment, and every decision she makes begin to affect the lives and future of her friends, family and that of humanity. At first Mae is curious and excited at the idea of going transparent and erasing the very line between the public-private dichotomy and with her rising popularity she is all the more intrigued and convinced that this experiment will help not only her or the circlers but the masses at large. But when a dreadful incident occurs to one of her close friends, Mae is forced to stand at a crossroad where she can’t decide whether the leaders of the circle are actually what they appear to be or it’s all just a camouflage and as one mystery stats to unfold after the other, Mae starts to understand the very dynamics of the social media which try to manipulate so many across the globe.
The Circle though is a very gripping thriller but falters badly at the script writing and the execution of what could have been a wonderful film. The underlying concept of the film raises a very important question in today’s debate of the idea of data localization that ‘sharing your life with people is good and fun but the question is how much is alright to put out there in front of the world.’ The very idea of going transparent with the world for the sake of preventing crimes and incidents like suicides etc. cannot be quite accepted. Even though not all the dialogues are impressive and even the character sketch of most of the actors seems to be half-baked. However Emma Watson as Mae Holland is quite amazing in her role. She shines in the portions that requires her to display strong emotions especially in the climax scene of the film. Tom Hanks as the circle’s CEO Eamon Bailey is fantastic as always, however his talent is underused in this film (like the other actors in the film for example Bill Paxton who plays Mae’s father) and not to his full potential yet, watching him in a grey shaded character for the first time is a treat to watch. He plays the charming, eloquent, down to earth leader who underneath all this can manipulate you to even take your own life in just 5 minutes of talking with him and thus giving us a reality check that we can never know everything about a person. The rest of the ensemble cast is just average. The ending of The Circle is though very abrupt and little bit confusing yet this movie is worth watching at least once if you want to get a reality check on the truths about the monster called the ‘social media.’ less