CIRCLE OF FRIENDS
A film review by Jeffrey Graebner
Copyright 1995 Jeffrey Graebner
Recently, Ireland has produced a number of interesting and intelligent films. The latest Irish-import, CIRCLE OF FRIENDS, is a smart and charming coming-of-age drama that provides a thoughtful look at the complexities of young romance.
The film follows the romance of Benny (Minnie Driver) and Jack (Chris O'Donnell), two Irish college students experiencing love and romance for the first time. Their romance is contrasted with separate romances experienced by Benny's two closest friends: repressed Eve (Geraldine O'Rawe) and worldly Nan (Saffron Burrows).
Much of the film's appeal comes from the thoughtful and believable way that screenwriter Andrew Davies (working from a novel by Maeve Binchy) has these characters approach issues of relationships and sexuality. The film is set in 1957 and does reflect the more openly conservative values of the time, but the writing still seems contemporary thanks to the writer's recognition that most of the base feelings and concerns in these areas never change all that much.
The movie is at its best when it simply has the main characters talking to each other. We discover that Benny and Jack are right for each other during some wonderful early sequences where they go on walks together and find that they are able to freely talk with one another about anything. The physical attraction between the characters isn't ignored, but the film makes it clear that the emotional and intellectual attraction is what really counts the most.
Davies and director Pat O'Connor wisely keep the secondary romances involving Eve and Nan in the background, only using them to provide counterpoints to the main romance between Benny and Jack. Eve is an orphan that was raised by nuns in a convent, giving her extremely traditional Catholic views. Her romance with another college boy (Aiden Gillen) is marked by an interesting combination curiosity and a desire to remain true to her values. Nan, on the other hand, is much more worldly and quicker to jump head first into a passionate affair with an older man (Colin Firth). Both of these romances are used to contrast Benny and Jack's romance with more extreme examples. A twist in Nan's romance also eventually provides some conflict into several of the film's key relationships.
One refreshing aspect of the film is the very realistic way that religion is included as a major factor in the characters' lives. The girls are all Irish Catholics and many of their conversations include some discussion of the conflict between their religious beliefs and their natural curiosity about sex. It is rare today that a film treats religious values as a subject worthy of thoughtful discussion.
The one major part of the film that doesn't work is an unfortunate subplot involving Sean (Alan Cumming), a clerk at Benny's store who is a rival for her affections. This subplot is very ineptly played and it winds up being an unwelcome distraction. The big mistake is making Sean into an >obvious< villain in the film. Cumming plays him as a smirking, weasily character and O'Connor stages his scenes to make him appear as unflattering as possible. To top it all off, composer Michael Kamen greets his every appearance with obviously sinister music. It is made clear from the start that Benny has no romantic interest in Sean and that he is strictly her parents' choice for her. Since he is such an unpleasant individual, though, we never can see why >they< would see anything in him either. The character simply doesn't serve any useful purpose in the film and the time wasted on him could have been better spent developing the relationship between Benny and Jack even further.
Minnie Driver's performance is one of the best reasons to see this film. She is a very smart and charming presence who easily carries every scene that she is in. The film makes the point that she is a bit overweight and generally plain-looking, but she has an inner-beauty that is instantly recognizable. In an early scene, Jack very accurately describes Benny as a "solid" personality who truly knows who she is and what she wants. Driver's very smart and sincere performance clearly conveys this to the audience.
Chris O'Donnell is developing a lot of skill as a strong supporting actor. He is a very generous actor who truly knows when to stand back and let other actors dominate the scene. In this film, Benny is very much the central character and it is important to let Jack be primarily defined by her reactions to him. O'Donnell is able to do this, quietly playing off of Driver's more dominating performance to create an interesting chemistry. It takes a lot of skill for an actor to know when to stay out of the way.
CIRCLE OF FRIENDS is a small, pleasant film with some very thoughtful and intelligent dialog and a tremendously good lead performance by Minnie Driver. The film is marred somewhat by the unfortunate subplot involving the store clerk, but the parts of the film that work are easily able to overcome the parts that don't.
-- Jeffrey P. Graebner Columbus, Ohio
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews