Rent Circle of Friends (1995)

Charming but with an edge - Circle of Friends review by SB

This story of the trials and tribulations of growing up as young women in late 50s Ireland, based on a Maeve Binchy book, is better than one might suppose, with a lot of emotional truth. Andrew Davies' script is tight, and most of the performances are good. I did not spot any period mistakes, although the home village looked a bit too scrubbed clean. Minnie Driver carries the lead role well; she had not yet achieved her full unusual beauty, and in any case had to gain weight for the role, but makes a believable attractive young woman beset with tiresome parents, an unwanted admirer and the pangs of first love. As the object of her love, Chris O'Donnell puts in a personable performance. Alan Cumming is suitably obnoxious as the dishonest young man who wants to marry her for his own reasons. Some other performances are more lightweight. Colin Firth does his diffident but callous upper-class thing, and Ciaran Hinds has fun in a few scenes where he shocks students with anthropological stories. The terrors of sex before the Pill are well evoked. Not surprisingly, the Catholic church is not depicted in a positive light, although the film is far from anti-religious.