Despite an interesting premise looking to condemn the dangers of advancing technology and social media, “The Circle” is an unthrilling thriller that lumbers along like a blind, toothless tiger: it’s unable to be scare or appear dangerous and doesn’t have the sight needed to capitalize on its credo of ‘knowledge is power,’ thus becoming a powerless parable.
“The Circle” is based on Dave Eggers’ novel- interestingly, in 2004, it was discovered that Eggers wrote anonymous positive reviews of his own books to boost online sales. So, it would seem that Eggers should know of what he stages: showing how insidious the Internet can be and how pliable public reaction can be to what is planted. But instead, the idea backfires in Eggers’ hands: he creates The Circle- an all-knowing, all-seeing communications company- whose seemingly endless power in the knowledge it acquires is unbelievably unable to know Mae, an employee who’s risen in their ranks, may just topple their technological tyranny. In the good old days, when anyone knew too much, they were in danger of being whacked; in today’s world, the unseeing “Circle’s” scenario just seems wacky.
“The Circle” follows Mae (Emma Watson), a young telemarketer, who’s given the opportunity to interview with her friend Annie’s (Karen Gillan) employer, a company known as The Circle, whose production of technological advances is matched only by their social media monopoly. Mae aces the interview, and quickly joins the Circle in their customer control center. Mae soon finds her job performance is rated on a number-scale, as is her social status within the Circle’s compound- a communications workplace that functions more like a commune. Everyone within the Circle is watching, or seemingly being watched, never more evident than when the Circle’s founder Bailey (Tom Hanks) talks to an employee assembly and presents the Circle’s latest invention, a small camera that can be placed anywhere and will be reasonably-priced for the consumer.
After this feasibly head-scratching development is introduced, Mae soon finds herself coerced into getting better ‘work numbers’ by appearing at more Circle functions. These functions stretch into late nights and weekends and include Beck (yes, Beck!) performing on a small soundstage for the assembled Circle sycophants. Among the assembled is Ty (John Boyega), an employee who strikes up a quick friendship with Mae over a bottle of Cupcake wine he retrieves from a nearby shrub. Ty, who’s seen the ‘inner-Circle,’ informs Mae that all the knowledge the Circle is acquiring through its technology may not be such a good thing (apparently, Mae never read Orwell’s “1984” in high school).
Soon, ‘Big Brother’ Bailey catches Mae doing something and assembles an employee audience for explanations (the film never fully explains the incident, so I won’t either). Suffice it to say, Mae gives Bailey all the right answers and Bailey uses Mae to promote his own self-interests by making her a ‘transparent:’ Mae will wear a camera to be displayed worldwide and monitored 24/7 (a la “The Truman Show”). Mae quickly becomes The Circle’s popular quasi-cute spokesmodel but, when Mae sees her visibility has far-reaching and regrettable repercussions, she becomes determined to use her newly-acquired limelight to illuminate the Circle’s darker, more devious directives.
In a good thriller, sketchy characters don’t remain sketchy for long and unexplained actions usually have a hidden agenda and payoff- “The Circle” is not a good thriller: its characters, no deeper than the words coming out of their mouths, are ineffective and underutilized; any unexplained situations aren’t exploited for surprise or suspense. Given the forum to tune into today’s technological terrors, “The Circle” is a film that misses a lot of opportunities with a script that’s implausible, inane, and ultimately ineffective.
“The Circle” presents an intriguing idea whose execution comes up as flat and empty as its shape- it’s a void to avoid.