We never did get around to reading the book this was based on, but we can almost 100% guarantee it had to automatically be better than this nonsensical whats-it.
What the filmmakers cobbled together here......some sort of half-assed mutation of a drama and sort of a thriller.....(a thrama?)
Wherever you think it falls, it does start out with a great premise and setting.......a vast social media empire, a blending of Apple, Facebook, Instagram. Populated by fresh-out-of-college 20 somethings, the place has the vaguely sinister feel of a brainwashed cult.
The 'Circlers', as they call themselves, behave like slightly more cheerful "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers" pod people.....or Scientology true believers. This peppy bunch happily pursue the corporation's goal of digitally linking every human soul on the planet......along with every minute of everyone's personal and private life......(feeling a little uneasy yet?)
Another brilliant move.......casting Tom Hanks, American's Everyman, as The Circle's warm 'n cuddly avuncular guru. Like Steve Jobs, he loves to regularly convene his worshiping minions in an auditorium to unveil his newest technological wonders.......
Sucked into this cult-like corporation comes innocent Millennial Emma Watson and she gazes in wonder at Hanks' performance art assemblies as if she's still at Hogwarts watching Dumbledore wave his wand to turn shit into shinola.......
And here's where the movie goes flying off the rails, indulging in one ludicrous, unbelievable plot turn after the other.....
Watson's character is completely at the mercy of the script's idiotic flights of fancy. From an entry level position in customer service, she almost instantly ascends to the company's most accomplished spokesperson and formulator of overwhelming ambitious world dominating plans for The Circle....ideas that leave even Hanks impressed. (Huh? Say what now? How does this happen?)
Her big brainstorm blows up in her face, leading to a tragedy that's as ridiculous as her own sudden conversion to Circle-Mania.
Along the way, there's plenty of fine, vicious and funny satire of a global population consumed with social media, a world full of hypnotized souls living a vicarious life on their IPhones and laptops, a populace who'd rather spend every waking minute digitally observing life.....rather than living it.
As skillful as those sequences are, they can't compete with the overall stupidity of the storyline. There's never any logical reason for Watson's 360 degree swings from clueless patsy to knowledgeable corporate tactician and there's never any logical explanation of whatever evil endgame that Hanks is up to.
An wobbly grab bag that tries to seize the zeitgeist while spinning a dopey fairy tale. 1 star (*)(and that's only for the swipes of social media).....if this was a Facebook post, we'd throw in that emoji that's throwing up.......
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