Where morality meets survival…
Premise: 50 people in a room. Each person stands on a red plate. If these people step off of it, they are electrocuted and die. Every few minutes a beeping starts, and someone else dies. Slowly the realization sets in that people are inadvertently voting on who dies. So, if someone has to die every few minutes and the group is choosing… then who gets to live? That’s Aaron Hann and Mario Miscione’s Circle and it’s…. okay. Not horrible, not fantastic, the film is a piece of cerebral horror/thriller, heavy on the tension without much explanation. Worth a watch? Well…
Since the film has such a big cast, there are really no big names and NO main character. No one is more important than anyone else, so anyone is on the block to get killed. The cast is highly diverse. From a cop, to a pregnant woman, to your average Joe, to big business tycoon, those in the circle are normal, everyday people you’d see on the street. Different beliefs and ideals come into play as these characters slowly vote each other into the grave. Two camps arise though, with one polarizing factor, but I can’t ruin that.
To brass tacks, the acting is mixed. Some people are really solid! The soldier character, the one armed man and quite a few young adult actors kill it with drama and dry biting sarcasm. Some people completely over act, and that hurts the believability of the film when some people appear to be raving lunatics. For example there’s a fanatically atheist character who gives atheists a really bad name… yeah this film has some pretty strong agendas. You see, to make you feel okay with characters being killed, sometimes (seemingly out of nowhere) they will become unlikable. For instance, randomly, someone turns out to be a racist or homophobic or even just kind of an asshole. However, in a certain light, one could argue that the film is trying to say “anyone can be evil,” but it looked more like forced writing to me.
The last third of the film is beyond solid. My previous complaints do still exist, but once some of the less interesting characters are killed off, we’re left with a harsh game of wits. The last group of folks are all trying to force the other party to vote one way or the other on who to kill, as the realize only one person can survive. The tension is so thick in this sequence and it’s fucking awesome. That last 20 minutes absolutely blew me away.
Between a shaky introduction and solid climax, Circle is a pretty solid movie leading to my rating off (drum roll please!):
Not great, not terrible, I’d say overall it’s worth watching if you enjoy thriller style films. Just don’t expect it to be your new favorite movie. I enjoyed it a lot, and it’s a good film to have a few drinks with some friends and watch together like a twisted reality show. Check out the trailer here. See if you think you’d be interested.