In this updated reworking of "1984", young Mae Holland (Emma Watson from the Harry Potter series) scores a great job working for "The Circle", a social media type of corporation which functions more or less as a cross between Facebook and Apple. The company employees are all too eerily devoted to the workings of the job, which includes harboring all intimate information on each other, and placing tiny cameras practically everywhere in public in order to peer into all citizens' private lives. The two creators of this firm are played by Tom Hanks and Patton Oswalt. Their agenda dictates that privacy is equal to thievery, and that being under constant surveillance keeps people honest. They take Mae under their wing and she eventually works her way up the ladder - she even volunteers to let herself be "transparent", which means she wears a camera constantly (except for bathroom breaks) and allows her whole existence to be screened "live" all around the internet.
That's enough of that. Emma Watson does a good job in her part and feigning her American accent, and since I don't follow Harry Potter I wasn't sure until afterwards if she had faked an English accent for that series, or if it was the other way around for this. However, since I AM a big fan of THE KING OF QUEENS TV sitcom, I had a rougher time buying the comedic geek Spence Olchin (ie; Patton Oswalt) in his serious role. Tom Hanks is a good actor and was really suitably despicable and frighteningly disingenuous. The problem was, there are good ideas here but not the best level of storytelling or plot flow. Some questions, too - such as the very last shot of the movie not making any sense, given the climax that had occurred shortly before it.
At age 55 as of the viewing, the film's privacy invasion theme did at least make me leave the theater quite relieved that I'm as old as I am at this time, and maybe that I wouldn't mind being a little older, even. I grow more and more disgusted at the Facebook/social media/loss of security that abounds all around us these days. Hey, to the all infants and children out there: it's your world now, and you can gladly have it. I wish you all nothing but good luck.
**1/2 out of ****
That's enough of that. Emma Watson does a good job in her part and feigning her American accent, and since I don't follow Harry Potter I wasn't sure until afterwards if she had faked an English accent for that series, or if it was the other way around for this. However, since I AM a big fan of THE KING OF QUEENS TV sitcom, I had a rougher time buying the comedic geek Spence Olchin (ie; Patton Oswalt) in his serious role. Tom Hanks is a good actor and was really suitably despicable and frighteningly disingenuous. The problem was, there are good ideas here but not the best level of storytelling or plot flow. Some questions, too - such as the very last shot of the movie not making any sense, given the climax that had occurred shortly before it.
At age 55 as of the viewing, the film's privacy invasion theme did at least make me leave the theater quite relieved that I'm as old as I am at this time, and maybe that I wouldn't mind being a little older, even. I grow more and more disgusted at the Facebook/social media/loss of security that abounds all around us these days. Hey, to the all infants and children out there: it's your world now, and you can gladly have it. I wish you all nothing but good luck.
**1/2 out of ****