The Circle - Chapitre 1: Les élues

I was looking forward to watch a Swedish movie, which I don't do very often. The reason is that Swedish film is known to be.. it's hard to explain, but cringe-worthy is definitely one way to put it. Swedes are pretty awkward in real life, but on film we're even more awkward. A good example of this is to compare the original first Millennium film with the Fincher remake.

I had heard that this movie was good, but it wasn't. FYI i have not read the books.

The villain was disappointing in execution and anything but threatening. I didn't believe for a second that the world was in grave danger.

The acting and dialog was cringe-inducing quite often, in typical Swedish fashion. The movie felt rushed and the lore of this universe was barely explained.

I give it a bonus star for portraying teen life and goth fashion pretty accurately (movies from all countries usually fail at this).

So "Cirkeln" is finally here. Since the book is a bestseller and it has been translated in over 20 languages - The film has been hyped in Sweden as "the next big export" after Swedish international success with "Girl with the dragon tattoo" and "Snabba cash". I personally love the novel and was so afraid that the movie would'nt match it's expectations... There was never any need to be nervous about that.

Director Levan Akin has put together an extraordinary cast of young actors whom shows (possibly) the best ensemble performance I've ever seen in a Swedish film. The acting in Swedish films are almost always overacted and too theatrical but not in this one. Irma von Platen (Minoo), Helena Engström (Anna-Karin), Miranda Frydman (Vanessa), Josefin Asplund (Rebecka), Leona Axelsen (Linnea) and Hanna Asp (Ida) does a tremendous job as witches aka The chosen ones, with stand out performances from Platen, Engström and Frydman. I've never in my life seen so good chemistry between actresses in a Swedish film. Akin's smart way of presenting the girls in their respective environments gives the audience a clear look on every girl and you understand they're personal problems as well as their differences.

I must say that Akin's work as director and co-writer with Sara Bergmark Elfgren in this film needs to be praised since i never thought they could take so many characters and actually have them all make a significant input in the film. It is one of those few times you feel that the film adaptation holds the same high standards as the novel.

Cinematography is off the hook as well as sound. And the special effects are actually good and well crafted.

This is a true breakthrough for female actors and it shows once and for all that they are just as bad-ass as any male-hero (like that was ever up for debate). But the guys in this film should not go unnoticed. Gustav Lindh acts with quality in his 5 minutes on screen as Elias. Charlie Petersson shows pretty-boy-stardom as Wille. And Sverrir Gudnasson is just the right choice to play Max.

Overall a 9/10 and without doubt a gamechanger in Swedish cinema!

This movie seems to presume that you have read the book(s) It follows the story really well but as always have to take shortcuts to fit in the time frame, even though it's allowed 2,5 hours. ...Of which the first 30 minutes is almost all about massaging you into Engelsfors, a small community in the modern world. The depicting of a teenagers life is rather good, even if it is cut short, it serves just as your massage in order to get to the point of magic. Some of these shortcuts feels to me that they would be totally incomprehensible if you haven't read the book, but I can be wrong.

Nothing bad about the directing, it is good. And considering that all main actors are first- timers, they do a good job! To me it feels like well performed amateur theatre, but as a movie watcher I wish it had been better, I cannot get immersed in what's happening.

And the worst: As always there seems to be no competent sound technician in Sweden! When watching the DVD version I find myself turning up the volume when someone speaks, and turning it down when there is sound effects. Even as a native Swedish speaker I have to strain myself to hear what they say. It shouldn't have to be this way, I really abhor it!

As a plus I must add that the music is very beautiful, and as I inclined above it is no problem hearing it.

All in all I think that this movie would do great if it was remade somewhat like "Let the right one in" -which by the way I think was equally good in both the Swedish and the US version.

I do not hope for a part 2, I hope for a Hollywood version of the whole trilogy!

I am always sceptical when it comes to the movie version of my favorite books. They leave so many things out and you always feel like the parts missing are so vital to the story, it's a shame they've been left on the cutting room floor. This time they really put the movie business to shame! The casting, the soundtrack, the acting, the special effects...it was all on point. The actors really fit the images I had made up in my head whilst reading the book and the music gave it all an eerie feeling along with some creepy scenic shots of the ghost town of Engelsfors. Go watch it and be ashamed of the fact that you ever doubted people in the film industry will never make a good interpretation of your favorite literature.

The Engelsfors trilogy is my favorite book series, but I didn't have high hopes coming into this. It's a swedish film after all AND it's a fantasy. Something that swedish film industry has pretty much never done. With that in mind I was actually positively suprised by the casting, the special effects and the score.

The characters actually didn't differ much from how I imagined them in the book, and the acting isn't bad from these girls. The special effects actually look very good, especially in the ending scene. The score is also composed by Benny Andersson from ABBA, so this movie could have been great!

BUT

Pretty much every other event from the book has been cut, the dialogues have been shortened and some parts have been changed in ways that I feel are not clearly understandable. And even though the pace was hilariously rushed it's still longer than most movies (2h20min). This made me realize that this book probably isn't suited for film adaptation. Maybe a movie-series would be the right way to go? That way you could cover one book per season.

The process of making this film probably went something like this: Someone wanted to make a movie on this great book. Fair enough. They wrote a reworked script for the movie and realized that they had to cut a lot of stuff. They started filming and only realized once they saw the end result that it was too rushed. That's why I don't blame the people who made this. It was a great initiative, but now we know it was never meant to be.

What makes the book so good is all the small details in their conversations, the interactions between certain members of the group and their internal monologues (which are very hard to translate to film, I understand). You would need a LOT more time to properly express these strengths in video form. That's why a series would be better. It's a shame that this movie turned out so awful, because the books are fantastic. Hope most people watching this had read the book first, otherwise they would be put of from reading them.