Spyware for dummies
IF the human race could ever be wholly enslaved by a social network, Tom Hanks would be the type to pull it off. As tech patriarch Eamon Bailey, he delivers ominous pronouncements like “I believe in the perfectability of human beings” with warm-andfuzzy Hanksiness.
But even he can’t save “The Circle,” a clumsy adaptation of Dave Eggers’ 2013 dystopian novel about modern connectedness. Set at a Silicon Valley corporation (think Google), the film is laughably blunt in message and dated in set design. It feels like the brainchild of middle-aged guys (James Ponsoldt directed and cowrote the screenplay with Eggers) who still think of Facebook as cutting edge.
Emma Watson stars as Mae, plucked from cubicled-call-center obscurity to join the Circle as a “customer experience” worker. It’s basically a call center, but comes with rock-climbing and yoga classes, and fired-up colleagues. Her bubbly friend Annie (Karen Gillan) has ascended to the “Gang of 40,” which carries out vague international tasks.
“The Circle” is at its best early on, when Mae’s finding her footing. She’s passive-aggressively ambushed by managers who’ve noted her absence at weekend events (“Totally not mandatory! Just for fun!”) and know unsettling amounts of information about her family, including her father (Bill Paxton, in his final film role).
The revolutionary trappings of the Circle are lame. The company’s supposedly sophisticated friend network, for instance, is one long chat window. Patton Oswalt, as the company’s COO, is like every other cinematic nefarious higher-up.
Mae has a circle of doubters in her parents (Glenne Headly plays her mom), her Luddite friend Mercer (Ellar Coltrane of “Boyhood”) and a mysterious co-worker (an underused John Boyega). You can see her registering the creepiness, but she turns to the dark side after a near-drowning incident where she’s saved by Bailey’s spyware. Soon she’s wearing a camera 24/7 to show that humans are at their best when watched and demonstrating a tool to find people who don’t want to be found.
Watson’s not the right fit for this role — she radiates too much intelligence. Our voluntary loss of privacy is ripe for dramatization, but people are backing away from social media. As a warning about what can happen when we grow lazy about our liberties, “The Circle” is unfortunately up against “The Handmaid’s Tale” — a much more topical nightmare. This one’s more like “The Square.”