SummarySet in 1950's Ireland, this romantic coming-of-age story follows three childhood friends from a small town as they head to college in Dublin.
Directed By:Pat O'Connor
Written By:Andrew Davies, Maeve Binchy
Circle of Friends
Metascore
Generally Favorable
69
User score
Mixed or Average
6.0
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
68% Positive
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
32% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
90
Their sweet, determined, gently understated struggle for fulfillment in a superstitiously conservative society makes this densely, deftly packed movie a quiet joy to behold.
80
Like an old-fashioned theater program, it tells you early on who and what each of its characters is--and so they prove to be, enjoyably. [10 Apr 1995 Pg.30]
75
Driver, who is padded but not fat, is an actress with self-possession to spare. Her looks defy conventional rules about modern beauty, but the directness of her gaze and the honesty of her smile make it difficult to look anywhere else when she is on screen.
70
It's not a challenging movie or an original one, but it does have its pleasures -- most notably a radiant, soulful debut performance from Driver, who saves Circle of Friends from being merely an Irish ugly duckling story.
63
This unashamedly old-fashioned coming-of-age story is nothing new, but remains highly watchable nevertheless.
50
Circle has a wit and warmth that makes something as glibly contemporary as Reality Bites seem trite and toothless. [15 Mar 1995, Pg.06.D]
50
From that point on, the movie becomes distressingly predictable, with nary a surprise to be found.
User score
Mixed or Average
33% Positive
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
67% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
Nov 28, 2021
5
This is a borderline overly sweet film, in terms of elements of sentimentality and on ocassion an over-use of light cheesy music. The plot is hardly brand new, although I did find it interesting considering its set in the past, in the 1950s -I certainly haven't seen many coming of age type films set in Ireland that weren't of a modern day setting. The plot pace is quite slow but its an easy enough watch, if slightly bland. It does feature some sex related scenes, although nothing explicitly graphic is shown, its more implied but some partial nudity is shown and noises heard from a distance on ocassion, which would account for the 15 rating its given in the UK. Its almost got the feel of a slow soap, rather than a drama about it somehow. I liked a number of the characters, although it has to be said that the person who plays the archetypal/stereotyped bad guy role (I'll not name him so as not to spoil the film for others) plays him very well, as when I saw him appear in scenes I felt tempted to shout out 'boo!' as if it were a panto!. If it were a bit faster paced I'd have enjoyed it more - it was an alright watch, an easy watch but a bit too bland for my personal taste and the cheesy aspect obviously didn't do it any favours either. There are some nice landscape shots of Ireland however - it certainly harks back to a cosier time, or so it'd have you believe.
