Circle of Friends
by Pat O'Connor
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DVD details
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 (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Letterbox, 1.85:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-03-31
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Hbo Home Video
DVD Reviews of Circle of Friends
DVD 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.
DVD Review: Beautiful Ireland and Beautiful Benny
Summary: 5 Stars
If you love Ireland, get this movie. It's a beautiful homage to the country, and she sure looks great.
If you love heroines who are are not typical, get this movie. Benny (Minnie Driver in an excellent performance) is a chubby, clumsy girl who has a big heart that breaks - and her big heart serves her well. You just root for her all of the time because she is so genuine. I'm not going to give you the plot because I don't want any spoilers to ruin your enjoyment. Oops, perhaps I gave you one. Sorry.
Well worth viewing; I recommend it highly. Excellent performances by all of the cast in particular Saffron Burrows (you love to hate her) and Colin Firth. As in Colin Firth: "Mr. Darcy, why do I hate you so much in this movie?" Good acting, is why.
DVD Review: Circle of Friends
Summary: 5 Stars
The DVD was in great shape. It arrived timely. I would definitely buy from them againDVD Review: Split the difference between the novel and Hollywood
Summary: 4 Stars
I know that this is quite different from the original story, but it's still a good movie. It's Hollywood-ized, but it's not so Hollywood-ized that it just flings Benny back into Jack's arms as if nothing happened.
I hadn't watched this and years and popped the DVD in to see if I wanted to keep it or resell it. I think I'll keep it. I'd forgotten how good a movie it is. It's such a relief these days to see a film with so many reasonable, believable characters when so many movies now seem to sell themselves on outlandishness.
It was HUGELY refreshing to see a girl who really is big--tall and solid--playing a character that's supposed to be big. She is not at all unattractive and is not portrayed as plain, awkward, or "nerdy" (as un-beauties usually are). She's just not a silver-screen sylph, and thankfully the movie doesn't punish her for it or make a lot of ugly-duckling jokes at her expense. Hooray, Minnie Driver!
Geraldine O'Rawe is also great, feisty but not heartless, sensible, and intelligent. Saffron Burrows has less of a part but it's clear that she's naive and got in over her head, and not just a heartless vamp. It's clear why the three girls are friends but the characters are not played so much alike that they seem flat. Colin Firth is utterly colorless, but he has a minor part, and his flatness is appropriate for the role (Mr. Darcy fans will probably be disappointed, though).
DVD Review: Wonderful as a Movie
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a charming movie in which Minnie Driver was such a delight. Great supporting cast. Notice all the bad comments are from people who read the book first and were disappointed it wasn't what their imaginations produced from the authors' words. They don't seem to know what it takes to produce a movie. It can't be a six hour movie. This is supposed to be about the movie-Not the book. If you see the movie first and then the book....It will give a deeper and richer look at the story not possible in less than two hours. Geez..... get a clue.
Description 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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