The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Although this movie lacked any sort of plot, and was forever flitting from one insignificant scene to the next, I was willing to watch it because of the fine acting performance by Minnie Driver and that there seemed to be a story shaping-up between her character and that of Chris O'Donnell's. When he left Bene sitting for almost the entire time of his party, opting to dance with her glamorous friend, instead, I should have been warned.When this cad (Jack) actually tried and succeeded in getting Bene to dance as she was about to leave, I should have realized the black nature of this script and screenplay. When Jack has coitus with the glamorous friend (played by Saffron Burroughs) and gets her pregnant (he is told), he decides to tell Bene, whom he has, by then, some real affection for. As he is getting off the bus or trolley to meet her, tell her and break her heart, I turned the movie off and threw it out. A film really has to offend me for me to score fewer than 7 stars. No real plot and an apparent delight in hurting those vulnerable means a cinematic failure to me, even with Minnie Driver's memorable character and performance. The fact that Circle of Friends was based on a novel is no excuse. Another one should have been used. A fresh and compelling screenplay could have been developed, loosely using the characters of Bene and Jack. Certainly, this movie was talent wasted.

As a general rule, I am picky about adaptations of books on the big screen, but there is much to love about this version of Maeve Binchy's excellent novel. I loved the book from the first time I read it, and was delighted to find a film version to rent. The cast are really very good and the movie is well-written and directed. Minnie Driver is wonderful as Benny, with Chris O'Donnell portraying a slightly more sympathetic Jack than the selfish young man in the novel, and excellent support from Geraldine O'Rawe, Saffron Burrows, Alan Cumming and Colin Firth (getting to play a cad rather than the hero for a change).There are, of course, some major differences from the novel but nonetheless the film works, in and of itself, and it is still extremely enjoyable. I can accept that for a Hollywood movie, a more conclusive ending was required than that provided by Binchy in the book, and it was made believable by the chemistry between Driver and O'Donnell in the last few scenes.I would agree that the sexual life of savages would be an unlikely subject for first year students in 1950s Ireland, but I like Ciaran Hinds as the lecturer, so I'll let it go...I also would have liked to see more of Binchy's supporting cast make it into the movie - Mother Francis, for example, who brought up Eve, or some of the other friends outside of the college group such as Clodagh or Fonzie. Obviously a film has limitations that do not hinder an author, but I would also have liked there to have been more back story for Nan - just why she chooses Simon, for example. And I could always use more interaction between Eve and Aidan, whose scenes in the book are richly comic and translate very well onto the screen.Despite my quibbles, I have always liked this film, and I would recommend it to most people, whether they have read the book or not, for its entertainment value.

Spoilers in this review, please do not read if you don't want the movie ruined.I read the book and to be honest, was very bored with it from the start, but once I start a book, I always finish. Well, about a day after I finished the book, I found the movie online and decided to buy it and figured maybe it would be better. I was so very wrong. Minnie Driver isn't even close to being "a barrel of a girl" or an "elephant" as she was called in the book many many times. You could even see her bones popping out of her skin through most of the movie.The whole point of the book and the story is that you don't have to be a beauty or thin or perfect. Benny seemed to be the same size as the other girls with a little chubbier face. They also completely changed the ending, she turns Jack down flat and moves on with her life (in the book) instead of pining away over the man who broke her heart and ending up back with him.(in the movie) I have many more complaints about the differences but I will spare you.Both the movie and the book are pretty much boring, I wouldn't waste your time with either of them.

SPOILERS HEREINI just caught this film last night on TV, purely by chance, and I guess with my low expectations it didn't disappoint but there were parts that did.It tells a sweet enough tale of three Irish college girlfriends and falling in love, and the central romance between Minnie Driver and Chris O'Donnell is well handled. There's enough chemistry there to illuminate the relationship.However, during the more dramatic parts of the story, I had quite a few complaints. While Driver's performance through the majority of the film was very convincing, she seemed very trite and almost cute during her break-up scenes and following the death of her father. The musical soundtrack as well wasn't very well handled to produce the most emotion. My female friends had given me the impression that this was the saddest movie they'd ever seen but I just found it nowhere near powerful enough. It is surely meant to be an emotionally charged film but the direction and the performances didn't do nearly enough to extract the feeling from it, and I felt like I was watching some street theatre or something because it was obvious what they were representing with their faces and body language, but there wasn't much acting involved at all.The second complaint is Alan Cumming's character. He's fine in the role, don't get me wrong, but it's such a stupid character. The story itself is realistic and the characters are empathetic and true-to-life, except this one. He's such a blatant caricature and left all conviction in the film for dead. I presume it's all from the book which I haven't read, but I really think an over-the-top character like that will always ruin a simple, sentimental romance such as this. They're far more suited to Roald Dahl books.But apart from those complaints it didn't really disappoint. It's simplistic and gentle-hearted and as such is ideal evening viewing as far as I can tell. ***/*****