Circle of Friends is a romantic comedy that is more than just charming. It relates to college life and some of the problems students face.
Based on Maeve Binchy's novel, Circle of Friends is a cute and witty film that has its characters facing issues such as love, money, friends, family and college life in the 1950s.
Set in Ireland, it captivates the audience with breathtaking views of lush landscapes.
The scenes between the characters are never dull and the chemistry between the players makes for a film that never leaves its audience.
Benny (Minnie Driver) and her friend Eve (Geraldine O'Rawe) are small town girls going to college in Dublin who both end up falling in love. In Dublin, they meet up with Nan (Saffron Burrows), their childhood friend who has other things on her mind besides college boys.
The three deal with love in different ways, but their strict Catholic backgrounds haunt them whenever sex is mentioned or thought about.
Slightly overweight and with kinky hair, Benny is supposedly the homeliest girl of her small Irish village. She continuously makes comments about her weight referring to herself as a rhinoceros. Benny is so consumed with her appearance it makes the audience notice things about her it might not have otherwise.
Nan introduces Benny to Jack (Chris O'Donnell), a handsome and popular premed student and rugby player. Benny falls in love with Jack instantly. But when Jack asks all three girls to a dance, Benny is devastated that Jack has danced with every girl but her.
She thinks she doesn't stand a chance next to her friends who have both been dancing with someone all night.
As Benny is about to leave crying, Jack stops her and says, "I always save the best for last."
Benny and Jack inevitably fall in love. The interaction between the two characters is always interesting. Driver and O'Donnell give fine performances as the innocent lovers.
Taking the evening bus home from school every day makes Benny unhappy because she has to leave her love interest and go home to her parents. Her parents want her to marry Sean Walsh, a snotty and creepy boy, who works with her father. He wants to marry Benny, but only to take over her fathers tailoring business.
Sean pursues Benny, telling her that no other man will marry her and she should marry him. Benny holds her own and makes it clear that she will never marry him and only loves Jack.
When Nan faces the hardships of love with an older man, she becomes the center of an extremely cruel plot that breaks apart Benny and Jack.
But it's inevitable that they will also be together. The ending is hardly disappointing and will leave a smile on everyone's face.