The Circle

This is a clueless movie based on the novel by Dave Eggers, a lame attempt at satire in regard to social networking and the invasion of privacy during the digital age. After slaving away at a temp job, Mae Holland (Emma Watson) lands a gig at The Circle thanks to her friend Annie (Karen Gillan), a top player at the company. The Circle is all of your basic modern day computer entities—Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.—wrapped into one big digital corporate burrito. It’s run by a friendly looking, coffee cup toting, Steve Jobs-like entity named Bailey (Tom Hanks) and his sidekick Stenton (Patton Oswalt, a.k.a. TV’s Son of TV’s Frank on the new incarnation of Mystery Science Theater 3000). Mae progresses from a customer service rep to a big player in the company seemingly overnight, and let’s just say that ascension is a wee bit unconvincing. Watson’s portrayal of Holland’s supposed turmoil and opinion swings lacks any sort of dimension, wit or shock value. Yes, much of this can be blamed on the screenplay written in part by Eggers himself and director James Ponsoldt. It lacks the sort of insight and dark humor this sort of film craves. But, while often an enjoyable movie presence, Watson might lack the talent to pull a role like this, one that requires her to be unlikeable in many ways. The Circle is obnoxious, sloppy and full of aimless arguments that have no true conclusions. You know … like most of your Facebook and Twitter news feeds.