Circle of Friends

As much as I like Colin Firth ever since his portrayal in the A&E production of "Pride and Prejudice," "What a Girl Wants," and "Master of the Moor," I have to say that this movie was totally monotonous, dreary and tedious. A dull and boring and uninspired movie about girls in 1950's Ireland trying to find their womanhood through their drawers and the drawers of the men they are involved in. I had seen this movie before my interest in Firth's career and found the characters implausible and improbable. All the characters were unbelievable except perhaps the "Uriah Heep" of the movie played by Aidan Gillen which oiled up the screen really good and made you cringe with revulsion with his attack. No real conclusions of the movie except that Bernadette 'Benny' Hogan (Minnie Driver) decided to give sex a try. A real inspiring yawn . . .

There is something to be said when a movie ends and you do not want it to end just there. You want it to proceed, go on, continue, to know these people, what they do, what they think. Circle of Friends is such a movie. For me. I know very little of what Ireland really is. All I know is what I see in the movies. But I do something of what culture was 40 or 50 years ago. Life has changed. The way we approach relationships has changed. Perhaps it is this utter charm of the glossed-over conventions of days gone by that attracts me. Perhaps it is the Irish culture. But then again, it was just the wonderful direction and acting all the time. Minnie Driver and Chris O'Donnell suprise us with these tender performances. Both of these actors have done large mass-market productions. But it is these tender performances that really shine far above the flashy movies they've done before and since. Call me a romantic. Go ahead. Do that. I'll just smile right back and say: yes. Fine movie.

This was the first film of Minnie Driver I ever saw and I loved her in this role as the main character Benny (or Ben as her friends call her) whose coming of age story is told within the full circle of the film as is that of her friends. If you see Driver in this, she is a far cry from the glamour puss she has become today in Hollywood films, but her acting is still just as superb. I truly enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone with a taste or stamina for bawdy Irish jokes, rawness one only sees from the other-side of the pond from time to time and heartbreak that exists in the lives of everyone especially those just getting to know the world for what it truly is. Chris O' Donnell also appears in the film, as the charming young lad Benny falls in love with. Alan Cumming (in another stereotypically sinister role), Colin Firth and Saffron Burrows also co-star.

As a "stand alone" this film is quite passable. If, however, you are a fan of Maeve Binchy and have read the book, you will probably spend a good deal of the film comparing the two, and the film comes off unfavourably. Some of the differences are minor, but the ending is completely different. I have no intention of comparing the two endings here as I don't want to be a spoiler, suffice it to say that if you have read the book, the film ending is a major disappointment. I also think that Benny was totally miscast. That the Benny of the book is a big woman is relevant to the storyline, whereas Minnie Driver, although quite tall, can't be called big under any stretch of the imagination. The film characters seemed wooden to me in comparison with the book characters. However, if you're not into reading books, the film is worth watching.

Having just completed the novel I decided to rent the movie. I knew that it wouldn't compare to the book, but the story was practically unrecognizable. Multi-dimensional characters were simplified (Eve had no spark in the movie, no anger), leaving you with little indication as to what their thoughts and motivations were. I was particulary disappointed to see that the special circumstances surrounding their initial meeting on the first day of university (the motorcycle accident) was completely rewritten in favour of a lack-lustre introduction. But the biggest disappointment was taking a story about friendship and turning it into a romance movie.

It must be at least five or six years since I saw this movie last, and I couldn't remember much of it before I saw it again yesterday. That does not surprise me since Circle of Friends truly isn't a very memorable film. It's sweet and extremely well-acted (apart from the always boring Chris O'Donnell)... but that's about it. It was fun, though, to see Minnie Driver, Saffron Burrows, and Aidan Gillen (Queer as Folk, UK version) in early roles. As always, Colin Firth delivered a fine performance.