The Circle (2002)

Some students at Runcie prep school form an elite club. The group is implicated in a cheating scandal and one of the club members dies mysteriously. Another member decides to try and discover the dangerous truth about Runcie.

Director:

Sidney J. Furie

Writer:

Brian Hannan

Stars:

Treat Williams, Robin Dunne, Gianpaolo Venuta

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Treat Williams	...	Mr. Spencer Runcie
Robin Dunne	...	Alex Desineau
Gianpaolo Venuta	...	Jetson Harlow (as Gian-Paolo Venuta)
Daniel Enright	...	Demian Carthy
Dylan Trowbridge	...	Baker Salsbury
J. Adam Brown	...	John Frazier
Jamie Robinson	...	Marcus Faulkner
Malin Akerman	...	Tess
Aaron Poole	...	Smitty Jacobson
Gordon Currie	...	Tom Wilkinson
Stewart Arnott	...	Mr. Turner
Alex Karzis	...	Detective Razatos
Anaya Farrell	...	Detective Sabrina
Ken James	...	Chief Lloyd Huxley
Dan Petronijevic	...	Bully #1 (as Daniel Petronijevic)

Storyline

Five friends unite to constitute a circle of sneaks and cheaters at a private boys boarding school. A file cabinet containing test papers is found tampered with and the group is implicated as a result of getting top grades for the paper. All A students are brought before the honours council for questioning. One member of the council, Smitty, vows intently to find the cheaters. Someone narcs on one of the Circle, Frazier, who soon expelled. The rest of the Circle agree to give the narc no mercy. They beleive it was Faulkner, also an A student but not a member of the Circle. Faulkner is Alex's roommate; Alex is a member and believes he is innocent. Jetson Harlow, another member, sends Faulkner a fake rejection letter from MIT for revenge. Faulkner ends up dead, his death labelled a suicide.

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Plot Keywords:

torture | false identity | cross dressing | exam | boxer shorts | 

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Taglines:

Pledging Was Hell... Getting In Was Murder.

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Genres:

Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, some sexual content and violence

Details

Country:

Canada USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 December 2002 (Spain)

Also Known As:

The Fraternity

Filming Locations:

Ridley College, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

CAD 5,400,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$17,419 (USA) (20 April 2001)

Gross:

$661,445 (USA) (25 January 2002)

Company Credits

Production Co:

GFT Circle Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

User Reviews

This one can be fun, but only if you are looking for gaffes and goofs.

On the surface, this looks like it might be an edgy or gritty drama about the seedy underside of prep school. What it ends up being is another nearly pointless exercise in bad writing, hack acting, overly melodramatic devices, and just plain goofiness. The plot has holes so big that you can drive a truck, no make that a train, through them. Everyone here is sleazy in some way or another, including our group of heroes, who are cheats and bullies. But then I guess they are okay compared to the real baddies, who are killers and transvestites. What a giant load of ****, and the thing that was fun was to see just how ludicrous, silly and offensive it could get. As one example of many, we have here a group of 5 students who secretly run the whole school through wiretaps, night heists, and coercion. Yeah, that's easy to believe! It ought to have been called Mafia Prep Academy.