THE CIRCLE
US, 2017, 117 minutes, Colour.
Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, Ellar Coltrane, Bill Paxton, Glenn Hedley, Karen Gillan, John Boyega.
Directed by James Ponsoldt.
Well, this is embarrassing. Do you often have that message appear on your computer screen when Word or Mozilla is telling you that it is not responding and they come up with that embarrassment apology and make suggestions about how you could rectify the situation?
Well, this is embarrassing. When this reviewer consulted the IMDb entry on The Circle and found such hostility towards the film, its subject, the screenplay, performances, it was a very awkward moment. Principally because the reviewer had liked the film a lot and was being shamed by a vigorous, sometimes vicious, combination of reviewers, bloggers and trolls. Perhaps I should have guessed it because the cinema release in Melbourne was at only six venues in outer suburbs, for one week only, one session per day at 10:15 AM.
So, the challenge was to articulate what was so interesting in the film.
It was the subject. The Circle is a technology company which is moving so fast that it is gaining members as prolifically as Facebook, Link-in, Twitter…, especially members in the younger age bracket who are eager to be in instant and detailed communication with as many people as possible and as instantly as possible. The aim seems to be to make everything, every thought, every feeling, even every secret, as available as imginable.
At the centre of the story is Mae, a strong performance by Emma Watson, a young woman doing secretarial work who gets the opportunity to have an interview to work for The Circle, assisted by her good friend, Anna (Karen Gillan) who has a significant position in the company. Mae gets the job and is delighted. She goes to the weekly Friday evening gathering of workers and members, enthusiastic young adults, who listen in admiration to the genial and good-humoured self-promotion of the CEO, Eamon Bailey, played, significantly, by Tom Hanks.
Important are characters in the background of Mae’s life, especially her parents (Bill Paxton and Glenne Hedley who both died soon after completion of the film) and a kind of boyfriend, Mercer, played by Ellar Coltrane (whom audiences saw growing up, year by year in the twelve years of the making of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood).
Mae is constantly challenged by exuberant co-workers, wondering why she doesn’t participate in all the communal activities of the company. Mae likes to kayak and, one night, to get away from things, she takes a kayak from a locked facility, goes onto San Francisco Bay, gets into trouble and immediately there are searchlights and rescuers. Everybody knows about and has looked at what she has done. The consequence is that Mae is challenged, acknowledging how she felt bad when she was keeping secrets, enthusiastically agreeing to wear a mini-camera all the time so that all the members of The Circle can her see her every action, share her every thought and feeling, including her contact with her parents, her father suffering severely from MS.
While the audience in the cinema is looking at Mae, brief message after message, Twitter -like, sail across the screen, everybody participating in Mae’s life. Mae is so buoyed by all of this even to suggesting that as individuals register for The Circle, automatically they are put on the electoral roll – leading to an optimistic sharing of ideas and attitudes, everyone united. She doesn’t think of the word ‘totalitarian’.
So, the challenge to the film’s audience, the screenplay written by Dave Eggers who wrote the original novel, is where we stand on communication, where we stand on privacy, where we stand on invasions of privacy, guilt feelings and shame and shaming, and where social media is taking us and is taking us so rapidly.
Maybe the bloggers felt threatened by the message of this film, a caution on the repercussions of social media, some of them potentially tragic.
This reviewer liked the message and its challenge, the performances, the implications of the themes. It is hoped that there are some out there who will also like The Circle.
1. A contemporary story? Futuristic? American? World story? The linking of the world?
2. California settings, homes, workplaces, offices, the Bay, the woods and mountains, the bridge? The halls the gatherings? Socials for The Circle? The musical score?
3. Audiences identifying with the themes, the characters? Social media? Technological development? Communications? Cameras, audio surveillance? Links, sharing, contacts? Signs of progress?
4. Audience response to issues of privacy, intrusions? In daily life, detailed? Information at the right to information? Secrets, lies? Things are guilt, exposed in feelings of shame? Idealism about human unity? Memories of totalitarianism? The situation is real and unreal?
5. Mae and her story? Emma Watson in the role? Her age, ordinary, but work, her relationship with her parents, the visits and meals? Her hopes? Her friendship with Mercer? Her friendship with Anna, and upper ranging the interview, her excitement, getting ready? Her parents support? The expectations of the interviewer, thinking her enters boring? Her improving, giving the right answers, getting the job?
6. The Circle, as an organisation, for communication, technological expertise, technological development, control? Cameras and surveillance, audio? People being controlled? Bailey, genial, his speeches, rapport with the crowd, self-promotion, enthusiasm? Something of a benign dictator? His presentations, the jokes, his ideals? His assistant, their discussions, sharing with him? Plans, in the office, discussions? The senators investigation?
7. May, her ancestor clients, the target for her assessment, her score? Ambitions? Not particularly involved with socials? Going home, the discussions with Mercer? Her relationship to her parents, her mother’s concern, her father and his MS? The project with Ana, the beginnings of change, and a very busy, her improvement and Amber’s decline?
8. Her love for kayaking, stealing the boat, going on the water, the darkness, the trouble, into the water, the searchlights, the rescue and the police? Everybody knowing and seeing what she had done? The aftermath, discussions with Bailey,’s secrets and sharing? So telling the truth and her feeling better?
9. Her transition, going on stage, the presentation, the interview, her agreeing to where the camera?
10. Her followers, seeing and knowing everything, intimate details, the range of tweets floating across the screen, the languages? The discussions with the parents – but the intrusion on their sexual encounter and their cut the connection? Her job, becoming a celebrity? Talking with and are in the privacy of the toilet? Discussions with Thai? Her growing enthusiasm?
11. On stage, progress, the suggestion about enrolment in The Circle and on the electoral rolls? As a celebrity, Bailey encouraging her, her enthusiastic communication everybody agreeing?
12. The character of type, his suspicions, talking with Mae, his wariness? The meetings, listening to her presentation? The contact and his advice?
13. The search for the criminal, finding the criminal under 20 minutes, everybody watching, the clock, Bailey and his assistant? The scenes of the criminal, following her, people giving information, in the prison, out of the prison, at work, being caught?
14. Soul-search, finding someone who is not a criminal, everybody calling out, Mae hesitant, the decision about Mercer?
15. Everybody trying to find Mercer, finding him, pursuing him, in the vehicle, his fears, not knowing what’s happening, the crash and the fall from the bridge? Audience reaction? Bailey and is trying to save the situation, saying that the technology could be better, reconstructing the situation and Mercer not dying?
16. May, her grief, time away, the return to her parents? Talking with Thai?
17. Her plan, on stage, celebrity, her being manipulative, getting the audience to support Bailey and his assistant wearing cameras? That everything should be known, all the letters, emails? And they’re being instantly sent to everyone? Bailey smiling but knowing that he was exposed?
18. Themes of the limitations of communication, the need for privacy, the limits of invasion?
19. A warning about the future were, authorities in control, everybody’s private and public life under surveillance?
