Circle of Friends
by Pat O'Connor
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alan Cumming, Chris O'Donnell, Geraldine O'Rawe, Minnie Driver, Saffron BurrowsDirector: Pat O'Connor
Producer: Alex Winitsky
Producer: Arlene Sellers
Producer: Frank Price
Producer: Kenith Trodd
Producer: Rod Stoneman
Writer: Andrew Davies
Writer: Maeve Binchy
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-03-31
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Movie Reviews of Circle of Friends
Movie Review: first loves, first losses
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an absolutely beautiful coming of age film, set in an Ireland of a different time that no longer exists. Driver is wonderful as an exceptional girl whose boyfriend has the brains to see beyond her plain appearance. Few films transmit the joy of discovery of youth: sex, of course, but also ideas that go beyond the confines of family and village. It is a time of opening out, when you can choose who you want to be while you know you are losing something from childhood as well. The film is pitch perfect for this.
At the heart of the film are also terrible betrayals. These things can cause such terrible pain when one is so young and open, so ready to embrace the new without seeing the dangers. It is where the true person begins to emerge, in spite of mistakes but also deeper motives and capabilities. We can grow beyond this early, and most of us must. As I watched this sensitive portrayal, I remembered my own first loves with pain and joy - all the potential, all the disappointment, all the growth. At this, the film succeeded for me at the deepest level.
Warmly recommended. There is not a jot of Hollywood sentimentality or deus ex machina to it.
Summary of Circle of Friends
Three girlhood friends now at college share first loves, first kisses and first betrayals. At the center of it all is the best-looking boy on campus. Can a self-conscious dreamer hook the biggest fish in the pond? ' 'A marvelous romantic comedy' ' (Siskel & Ebert)A polished gem from 1995, this disarmingly sweet and dramatically insightful love story provided a charming showcase for Chris O'Donnell and, especially, then-newcomer Minnie Driver, whose performance drew critical raves and boosted her career to Hollywood. Smoothly adapted from the novel by Maeve Binchy and set in Ireland during the 1950s, the story focuses on Benny (Driver), a somewhat plump, plain-looking young woman attending university in Dublin who meets and quickly falls for Jack (O'Donnell), a handsome star of the university's rugby team who surprisingly reciprocates her glowing admiration. They're drawn together as soul mates, and their love is dramatically contrasted with a subplot involving Benny's more conventionally beautiful friend Nan (Saffron Burrows), whose appetite for older men leads her into a misguided and ultimately tragic relationship. A betrayal by Jack sets the stage for potential heartbreak, but director Pat O'Connor prevents these carefully drawn characters from resorting to sappy melodrama. They have lessons to learn about life and love, and Circle of Friends teaches those lessons with grace, humor, and heartfelt sincerity. --Jeff Shannon
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