Circle of Eight (2009)

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Even the hint of style was 'crap' style: you soon get sick of shampoo-advert beautiful young people characters with skin deep characterisation (at least I do, maybe I'm just 'old' at 44). The supposed creepiness/horror does not deliver: minimal gore, no real sense of menace despite building the house up into something that is obviously 'supposed' to be creepy. Compare this to 'Hell House', the old hammer movie with Roddy MacDowell - utterly no contest! Soon you realise that NOTHING about this movie is going to deliver. I doubt whether even the two leads (who are obviously set up to fancy each other) even get round to a good f. to alleviate the pussyfooting boredom.The end of for me came and half an hour, when the 'heroine' comes across a bloodied corpse hanging upside down. There's a brief flurry of panic where she dashes outside to alert some police who happened to be passing by. despite being believed by no-one, she soon recovers when offered a drink by square-jawed unshaven hero. WTF?? No sane person would want to stay on in that house, and would be shaken up for ages. All credibility lost. Goodbye.No idea what happened after that, and I totally don't care.PS: Ha! Having read all the other reviews now, I see I was right: would have been a total waste of time to stay with it to the end: this movie does not deliver on ANY level. I was even right about predicting that the obvious sex with the 'hero' would not develop into at least a good adult scene to relieve the boredom: you get cheated even on this.All pathetic. Give it a miss.

A variation on "Groundhog Day", with the difference that everyone except the main character knows they're existing in a loop. The movie is set up in a fairly interesting way, but establishing an interesting set-up is always the much easier part. The harder part is RESOLVING it - at least in a logical way. Apparently, the lazy writers couldn't find a neat enough way out of their writer's block so they left the ending open.About as wide open as a prostitute's t**t. Basically, the viewer is free to interpret the movie in a wide variety of ways. In other words, there is no explanation given, not enough clues are offered for any viewer to present a strong case for their favourite theory, hence the movie has no real meaning. It's a tried-and-true confidence trick that's been used in films for decades. Stuck with no ending to a complex, bizarre plot? Just end the movie without explanation, and hope that enough people will be too embarrassed to admit that they don't understand it so they come up with various semi-baloney theories to save face, and that way pretend as if they both understood and enjoyed the film. The inferiority complex related to the viewer's own intellectual (in)abilities has been a great friend and ally to the more pretentious (i.e. lazy and incompetent charlatan film-makers). What would they do without it.As far as the enjoyment factor goes, it's by no means a terrible movie. It isn't dull, for one thing. Secondly, movies with an interesting set-up but no conclusion are at least fun to watch before they implode at the end. That's better than nothing. And it's certainly better than the opposite: a boring movie that explodes at the end, like "The Village" with its excellent ending for which the viewer unfortunately had to sit through 100 minutes of tedium and awful acting by a nepotistic cast of anti-talents. I'd rather have fun for 90 minutes and then be disappointed at the end – given a choice between the two extremes.To anyone who is desperately trying to take this movie more seriously than it truly deserves, consider this: the early lesbian scene. There was absolutely no point to it, except to titillate the more desperate viewers. It had exactly zero to do with the story. Consider also the amazingly overlong intro which includes Jessica singing along to the ENTIRE damn song. So was this movie just a means to promote a hit-single wannabe? That song is awful, it's annoying, and we didn't have to be exposed to each and every of its 45 crappy choruses.Jessica had expressed a desire to repeat the drowning event with her younger brother, i.e. have another go in which she'd save him. So why didn't she get THAT (her brother and a batch of water) instead of this whole nonsense with the "Dante" building? OK, fine, the name itself is a dead giveaway, of course she is in some kind of Hell. But WHY? Why is she in Hell? Because she didn't save her brother? That would be ludicrous, even by the many moronic religious criteria.A reviewer (rather desperately but imaginatively) suggested that Jessica's loop may have to do with a Buddhist belief related to reincarnation and going through the same loop (i.e. life) until you stop making the same mistakes. Even if the writers did have that in mind (which is doubtful, hint-hint: lesbian scene), it wouldn't explain that much. Besides, does anyone truly find LOGIC in that particular religious belief? You're punished for your "sins" by repeating them over and over, without KNOWING that you'd committed them a zillion times? That makes no sense. What kind of a chance at "redemption" does that leave you? And once you've finally stopped making that mistake, you stop existing! That makes even less sense. Perhaps you have to be a Buddhist monk (or Richard Gere) in order to understand this line of reasoning, probably by giving it some bizarre spin that doesn't sound utterly ridiculous only to the fanatially faithful.There is also the suggestion that Jessica one day burnt down the building and "dragged" the other tenants into this hellish loop, and the day is repeating over and over so that by sacrificing herself for hunk-boy she may give them all a chance to finally rest in peace(?) or live on(?). But WHY would the others be punished for her sloppiness with matches and fire? Illogical. If the other tenants are all in Hell as well, why is SHE the one whose actions decide whether they get to break the cycle or not? What maker her so damn special? Illogical.The rather flimsy credibility of CO8 hangs by a very thin thread. How thin? It's like a one-armed man hanging on to a cliff's edge with three fingers while elephants are being tied to his feet to drag him down tumbling. That's how barely the logic in the story holds out without collapsing in on itself – even with outside help (such as the Buddhist-related explanation).I'm all for intriguing movies with ambiguous endings, but they do have to give you a fighting chance to wonder about the conclusion. However, there is a distinct difference between an equation with one or two unknowns and an equation with a dozen unknowns. The latter type of equation does not have a solution. X+U-Jx3-R/G-H+B=X-1 is an unsolvable mess, not an intriguing mystery. Learn to distinguish between the two, ye who art cast out of excessively optimistic, naive material.

The film originally seemed interesting but by the finale I started thinking perhaps there was no point.I like when films don't feel they must spoon-feed the audience information about what's happening. People are generally reasonably smart and movies claiming to be smarter often end up insufferable.However this movie was different. It didn't shove information up the audience's nose, but as the credits rolled it seemed as though the movie existed simply to appear intelligent without actually being intelligent. I'm not sure even the people who wrote this knew/decided what the story was. I only know its nothing I'd watch again

i use this website a lot for reviews from my peers and so far you guys and girls are correct but this one is getting such bad reviews i just felt like registering and offering another view .Starts of with a cliché . A single woman making a new start when she moves into a new apartment . She quickly gets to know her neighbors and the odd stuff add up very fast . the rest you will have to discover yourself .If you expect suspense , blood and/or gore then move on . You do get to see some lesbian action but i still haven't found out why , except maybe to lure in teens who want to see their first boobies . The events that happen are also not that original but the general idea of the story revealed at the end makes it all worth while .It is simply a food for thought movie . if you value story above cgi you ll be set for an hour of good story telling . A cheap production but with a very good idea . Sure it has (huge) flaws like the intro being way too long and the ending should have been ten minutes earlier but i liked it enough to come post here .