[David Spiselman is guest blogger for this review and author of CypherGhost, Book 7 of the Spies Lie series, an Amazon bestseller, under his pen name D.S. Kane].
The Circle, based upon the 2013 bestselling novel by Dave Eggers, is a flawed movie but an important one. The Circle is the first movie to explore the balance between openness and privacy of technology in a way that delivers an indecisive conclusion for its viewers. It’s a polemic against technology and the Silicon Valley lifestyle, startup companies and how easy it is to assume easy answers to difficult questions. You can draw your own conclusions when you see the movie.
Tom Hanks, Emma Watson and John Boyega are a stellar cast, and will keep you entertained. Mae Holland (Emma Watson) takes a job with the world’s most powerful social media company. and joins an experiment that pushes the boundaries of privacy, ethics and personal freedom. Her participation in the experiment starts to have an impact on her friends’ lives, her family and that of the population at large.
While Dave Eggers, the author of the 2013 novel, claims he didn’t do much research, The Circle has the exact feel of the Google campus. I should know. My wife and I attended their pre-IPO party and it felt spooky seeing the movie version of what could be Google, Facebook, or any other of the massive tech giants up close.
The protagonist, Mae Holland, says “Secrets are lies.” This is a central theme of the movie, and it’s the scene you’ll revisit after you leave the theater. I advise you to see The Circle. You might dislike it. You may find it enlightening. But I don’t believe you’ll find it a waste of time and money.