The Circle

As a teacher, I worry about my students’ total immersion in social media.  Is instant access a good idea or is it potentially harmful to society?  “The Circle” attempts to get us to think about these questions.  Emma Watson, sans her English accent, plays Mae Holland, who lands a dream job at The Circle, the world’s most powerful social media company (Think Google+ Facebook+ Twitter).  The “bad guy” is the company’s founder played by the always likable Tom Hanks, who  proposes 24/7 world wide surveillance on everyone, everywhere, by the use of tiny little cameras that blend in with their surroundings.  Emma agrees to become the first person in the world to use these cameras as a way to ‘total transparency,’ to be under scrutiny at virtually all times, sort of like Jim Carrey in ‘The Truman Story,’ except the twist is she is a willing participant.  She is watched world-wide by everyone, except when she has three minute privacy breaks to use the restroom or is sleeping.  As you can imagine, there are some horrendous implications to this kind of public life with tragic results.   John Boyega was so wonderful in the new Star Wars movie, but he doesn’t have much to do in this one.  I would have loved to see more of him.  Apparently, The Circle was Bill Paxton’s last film, and he is interesting in a small role as Mae’s father.  I found the topic really interesting, but the movie itself moves slowly and really doesn’t pick up until the end. ‘The Truman Story’ was a much better movie; I would recommend re-watching that and wait until you can see this one on the small screen.