Circle of Friends

Set in 1957, this romantic coming-of-age story follows three childhood friends from a small town in Ireland as they head to Dublin to attend Trinity College. Nan (Saffron Burrows), a year older than her friends and already in her second year at Trinity, is ambitious, romantic, and just a bit ...more

The epic romance that is made of this slight drama set in the Ireland of the 1950s results in a somewhat overblown film that is redeemed by the star-making performances of its lead actress and a pair of supporting players. Minnie Driver, who gained 30 pounds to play the role of Benny Hogan, shines in the role of a lifetime, where she is required to play exuberant, crushed, righteously indignant, naïve, determined, and heartbroken in the course of a script that gives new meaning to the term ...more