I don’t even know what this movie is. I expected it to be a thriller based on the trailers, but that isn’t really accurate. There isn’t any suspense or a central conflict or really even a villain. It doesn’t have enough of a perspective to be a satire. I guess it’s a drama, though it isn’t particularly dramatic. Watching this movie may have been one of the most bland, emotionless experiences of my life. It is the kind of movie that I can barely muster the energy to discuss, though I must do so before I completely forget that it exists. Based on the fact that it took me my whole drive to work this morning to remember how it ended, the clock is definitely ticking.
Emma Watson plays a young customer service rep named Mae that gets hired at a social media company called The Circle that is run by Tom Hanks and Patton Oswalt. The company seems intent on putting miniature cameras all over the world to create a completely linked, transparent society. The legal and logistical problems with this are never addressed, so let’s just go with it. Mae then volunteers to be the first person to wear one of these cameras 24/7. Then some stuff happens and eventually it ends. None of the stuff is linked together in a way that would assemble a meaningful plot, so I don’t know what to tell you.
There is no arc or structure to this film. Stuff just happens without consequence or meaning. Mae sometimes seems to be ethically offended by the company, but then she will do shit like volunteer to wear the camera and suggest that the website be required by the government and used for voter registration. The villains aren’t really villains, they are just the dudes running the company. They don’t do anything more evil than any real-life social media executives do. If Tom Hanks is meant to be villainous, then that is some awful casting because the guy is just too damn likeable. Tom Hanks could set me on fire and I would still want to grab a beer with him if I survived. Mae’s ex-boyfriend (I think) seems to hate social media (never explained why) and spends his time in a log cabin hunting deer. The website members chase him down to put him online, causing him to drive off a bridge and die (there are no consequences to this). Mae’s friend (played by Karen Gillan, also known as the blue girl in Guardians of the Galaxy) looks increasingly depressed and strung out as the movie goes along, but I’m not sure why. Is she jealous? Is she having an ethical dilemma? Did Taco Bell remove her favorite menu item? Could somebody please ask this girl what’s wrong? She seems troubled. Am I rambling? That happens when you discuss movies without any sense of narrative structure.
The movie doesn’t even seem to have a stance on its own subject matter. The main character can’t decide if what she’s doing is right or wrong. The company executives have their secret email accounts brought public by Mae at the end, but I have no idea what’s in those emails or if there is anything incriminating. The company still exists at the end. The last scene is Mae smiling when she is swimming and sees drones flying around her. Why the hell is she smiling? Is she against this shit or for it? Did anything bad come of the emails? Is there a single repercussion to anything that happened? Why the hell does this movie exist?
I spent much of this film with my mind wandering. I wondered if I should try fishing. I wondered what the difference is between jelly and jam. My mind desperately tried to give me something to focus on other that the coma-inducing film on screen. This is the kind of movie that didn’t even make me angry. When it ended, I was just left scratching my head and questioning my choices in life. Oh, and apparently it features the last performance by Bill Paxton. That dude deserved better.
Image By: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Circle_(2017_film)#/media/File:The_Circle_(2017_film).png
