You have to respect a clear and engaging premise. There's no wasted time in this. No information dump. It's just a bunch of people in a room the whole time, trying to piece things together. I read that it was inspired by 12 Angry Men, which I suppose makes sense. It is a group of strangers arguing about life or death circumstances. Except the stakes are amped up even more. It's smart to go with mostly unknown actors. That way, it doesn't tip its hand about who will last longer. In fact, I ended up feeling bad for the one actress I did recognize, Julie Benz, because it means her career isn't in a great place.
My only problem with the movie is that I didn't always buy the direction the votes were going. And I don't mean that the votes went in a different way than I thought. I mean that, given the people left in the room, I didn't believe certain people would last as long as they did. The Wall Street guy with the suspenders and the sweater guy who claimed to have 7 kids were announced too early as villains. It didn't make sense that the crowd wouldn't've turned on them earlier..
The ending if fairly effective. I honestly wasn't expecting the final guy to double-cross the girl and pregnant woman at the end. I guess that means I have a more optimistic view of humanity.
Circle is a really entertaining genre exercise. I don't think I ever need to see it again, but it was worth the one watch.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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