#The circle 2017 movie

The pensive score maintains a sense of soul-searching throughout, while the lush Bay Area visuals strike an intriguing contrast with the high-tech compound where Mae does her work. Still, Ponsoldt remains a talented filmmaker with an eye for textured drama, and “The Circle” develops some modicum of intrigue over Mae’s divided mindset. “The Circle” is less a cautionary tale about the near future than an embellished vision of the present that’s just a hair behind the times. In fact, it’s so similar to existing technologies that the original material, released four years before the movie, shows its age. Ponsoldt follows her digitized life as she’s constantly surrounded by floating text from viewer comments, an evolved version of the interactivity that has overtaken live video in the age of Facebook Live and Periscope. Needless to say, Mae gets a little too enamored of the task at hand, and in due time she’s wearing a small camera pinned to her shirt and has morphed into an online celebrity.

#The circle 2017 movie

But the movie world never congeals enough to provide a coherent answer. When the company laps up Bailey’s empty mantras (“sharing is caring”) - and, once Mae gets promoted, her some of her own (“secrets are lies”) - it raises the question of how a bunch of mindless sheep could wind up populating a seemingly beloved technology empire, as well as how Mae herself could be so brilliant and vulnerable at once. This might make for a compelling window into corporate manipulation if “The Circle” didn’t suffer from a severely underwritten scenario that often borders on accidental parody. Standing before a massive screen that displays clandestine video around the world, he celebrates a bright future for the company with the ability to change the world, and his team applauds in approval at every cue, like some kind of Silicon Valley version of the Peoples Temple. Early on, she’s guided around the high-tech compound by coworker Annie (Karen Gillan), who leads her to a hyperbolic presentation about the company’s video platform delivered by Bailey to his fawning staff with Steve Jobsian charm. In any case, “The Circle” doesn’t have much use for this pedestrian backdrop aside from something to care about beyond pure technological progress once her job really takes off. READ MORE: ‘The Circle’ Trailer: James Ponsoldt Throws Emma Watson and Tom Hanks Into A Corporate Conspiracy Ponsoldt is on steadier ground when depicting Mae’s troubled relationship with her parents, particularly as her father struggles from multiple sclerosis, and the platonic friendship she enjoys with longtime pal and analog-minded Mercer (Ellar Coltrane, who may as well be playing his “Boyhood” character a few years down the road). Based on a 2013 novel by Dave Eggers, the movie has been directed by James Ponsoldt with the genial air of his far sturdier character studies, particularly his coming-of-age drama “The Spectacular Now,” but that gentle touch underserves the darker narrative on display here. That’s the essence of “The Circle,” a well-intentioned technological thriller that pivots between creepy dystopian possibilities and a sincere meditation on present-day challenges, and keeps losing its way. 'The African Desperate' Review: A Radical Indie Art School OdysseyĬhristopher Nolan's Best Shots: 37 Images That Define the Director's Careerīest Movies Never Made: 40 Lost Projects from Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, and More 'Good Night Oppy' Review: Meet the Scrappiest Rovers NASA Ever Sent to Mars

But by the time she gets to that point, it’s a wonder that such an alleged brainiac didn’t see it coming. As she transforms her life into a 21st century Truman Show, with millions of online observers commenting on her existence in real-time, Mae’s trapped by the powerful ramifications of the technology and the potential dangers they pose for both her life and society at large. With time, Mae becomes immersed in a scheme to develop live-streaming video with lightweight cameras at a low cost, and eventually signs up to wear one of the devices 24/7. Young brainiac Mae ( Emma Watson) scores a plumb job at technology empire The Circle, a palatial Bay Area company developing cutting-edge video technology at the behest of the smiley CEO Bailey ( Tom Hanks). The premise begs to provoke contentious debate around privacy laws in an age of boundless innovation, but it can’t seem to find steady footing in that dialogue, in part because it lacks a substantial means of asking the right questions. The core of “ The Circle” is a dumb movie trying to be smart.