Circle of Friends (1995 film)

Circle of Friends
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Pat O'Connor
Written by	Andrew Davies
Based on	Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy
Starring	Minnie Driver Chris O'Donnell
Editing by	John Jympson
Distributed by	Savoy Pictures Cineplex Odeon Films Rank Organisation
Release date(s)	1995
Running time	103 minutes
Country	Ireland
Language	English
Box office	$23,397,365 (USA) £2,120,050 (UK)

Circle of Friends is a 1995 film directed by Irish filmmaker Pat O'Connor and based on the novel of the same name written by Maeve Binchy.^[1]

Plot

Set in 1950s Ireland, the film focuses on the experiences of Bernadette "Benny" Hogan and her two friends, Eve Malone and Nan Mahon. They are characterized early on in childhood, during their first communion: Benny is the beloved and well-fed only child, Eve the orphan raised by nuns and Nan is poor but destined to be defined by her beauty. Skip to six years later: Nan has moved on to university a year earlier and Benny and Eve are set to follow.

Eve's education is financed by the local wealthy Westward family, her father's employers until his death. Eve boards at a nunnery while Benny must commute daily between home and Dublin, her parents being loath to let her go. They would prefer she marry the loathsome and creepy Sean Walsh, her father's faithful employee at his tailor shop.

Once in Dublin the two girls reconnect with a mature and sophisticated Nan who is quite aware of her bewitching effect on the opposite sex. Benny eventually falls in love with Jack Foley, a doctor's son expected to follow in his father's footsteps though not quite convinced that this is the career for him. The girls visit their home town and Nan becomes involved with Simon Westward. While Benny is able to resist a physical relationship, Nan is not and believes that Simon truly loves her. In the meantime when Benny's father dies, she leaves university to help her mother run the business and Sean Walsh attempts to woo her into marriage.

Nan becomes pregnant and Simon leaves her, offering to pay her off with a large check to get an abortion. A desperate Nan runs into a drunk Jack at a bar and she lures him into having sex with her to force his hand into marrying her. Jack does what he believes is the honorable thing and asks Nan to marry him. He tells Benny about the baby and the engagement and she is devastated. Eve finds out the truth and confronts Nan at a party and her duplicity comes to light.

That night, when Eve confronts Nan, Nan cuts her hand on a broken window at Eve's cottage. As he attends to her wounds, Jack realizes that he has found his calling in medicine. Nan recognizes that she cannot raise her child in a marriage based on lies and calls off her engagement with Jack.

Jack escorts Nan to the train station and she asks that he and Benny forgive her for her desperate actions. Nan heads to England to have her baby (or to have an abortion) and onto a new beginning. Curiosity gets the best of her and Benny snoops around Sean's living area above the tailor shop. Sean finds Benny in his room and attempts to rape her. She overcomes him and in the process finds the money that he has embezzled from her family for the duration of his employment. She demands that he leave, and he does, declaring that she is destined to be a spinster for the rest of her life.

Jack finally goes to visit Benny and win her back. She is unwilling to let him off so easily and she tells him it will take quite a bit of time for him to gain her trust again. He demonstrates his patience and humility and Benny finally relents and accepts his love and proposal of marriage.

Cast

• Minnie Driver as Bernadette "Benny" Hogan
• Chris O'Donnell as Jack Foley
• Geraldine O'Rawe as Eve Malone
• Saffron Burrows as Nan Mahon
• Alan Cumming as Sean Walsh
• Colin Firth as Simon Westward
• Aidan Gillen as Aidan Lynch
• Mick Lally as Dan Hogan
• Britta Smith as Mrs. Hogan
• Ciarán Hinds as Professor Flynn
• Tony Doyle as Dr. Foley

References

1. ^ The Irish Filmography 1896-1996; Red Mountain Press; 1996. Page 71

External links

• Circle of Friends at the Internet Movie Database