Set in 1950s Ireland, Circle of Friends is based on Maeve Binchy's coming-of-age story about a group of friends dealing with growing up in a strictly Catholic community.
The film begins as Benny Hogan and Eve Malone venture into the big wide world of Dublin to start their university education having previously lived in the pretty backwater village of Knockglen. In Dublin they meet the beautiful and worldly Jack Foley and Nan Mahon who introduce them to all sorts of new life experiences.
This is your classic love story - girl meets boy, girl and boy argue, girl and boy get back together. However, one pleasing aspect of the film is that the girl in question (Benny - played by Minnie Driver) is supposed to be particularly ordinary looking, whereas the boy (Jack - played by Chris O'Donnell) is very handsome. It gives us all a bit of hope, eh? I'd like to meet an Irish rugby-playing Chris O'Donnell myself.
Its not all so straightforward, however, because Benny has been all but promised to Sean, the greasy employee of her father's - played sleazily by Alan Cummings. Apparently no-one thinks that Benny can do any better for herself - until she meets Jack.
Neither is Nan as transparent as she looks, for although she appears to be poised and elegant she is in fact the daughter of a labourer who studies books on etiquette and is only at University in the hope that she will meet a rich man to marry. And she does, or so she thinks, in the form of one of Eve's relatives (a brief appearance from Colin Firth) who sweeps her off her feet and then leaves her when she gets pregnant and cannot have an abortion because of her faith.
This is where the trouble starts, and where the group are forced to realise that friends are not always as they seem, when Nan creates a web of deceit in order to blame her pregnancy on Jack - her best friend's boyfriend - and get him to marry her.
You'll be pleased to know it all ends happily ever after.
This was Minnie Driver's film debut, and she plays the part of the naive Benny convincingly, if being a bit too attractive! I believe she put on quite a lot of weight for the film, but like Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones's Diary it really wasn't enough! Chris O'Donnell too makes a good Jack Foley, a nice lad at heart who is duped by an evil corruptress. You almost feel sorry for him...
In itself this is a lovely film, all happy and meaningful and set in the beautiful countryside. Compared to the book, however, it is rather annoying as it lacks the character development and twisted sub-plots that are found in Maeve Binchy's novels. The ending has also been changed accordingly, and I feel that I prefer the kick-ass girl-power Benny that tells Jack where to stick his philandering scum of a self at the end of the book.
Nevertheless, worth seeing if you like a good chick flick. Morally you'll be pleased to see our ordinary heroine reach for the stars and achieve her dreams as her beautiful but evil 'friend' is forced to settle for second best and then nothing at all. The story will make you smile and the end will make you happy, and you'll appreciate who your real friends are.
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Production Year: 1966 - Drama - Director: Stanley Donen - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Albert Finney, Eleanor Bron, William Daniels, Nadia Gray, Claude Dauphin
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
The same year as the BBC'sPride and Prejudice(1995) writer Andrew Davies and star Colin ... more
Firth were also hard at work onCircle of Friends, an Irish romance brought to the big screen by director Pat O'Connor (Dancing at Lughnasa). It's 1957 and three sma...
Postage & Packaging: £2.69 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
![Circle Of Friends [VHS] [1995]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/74879604.jpg "Circle Of Friends [VHS] [1995]")
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![Circle Of Friends (Special Edition) [DVD] [1995]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78164830.jpg)
