Columbus Circle Review

• 27th Feb 2012

Selma Blair is Abigail, a mysterious agoraphobic living in an opulent Manhattan apartment. No one knows who she is, where she came from or anything about her real identity. Even the concierge has never met her, despite being there for 11 years and she communicates with him only via letters that she slips under her door. The only person she meets face-to-face Ray, her trusted friend who knows all about her secret past. All this changes when her elderly neighbour dies and is replaced by a young couple whose private problems become Abigail’s. As she struggles to protect her young neighbour from her abusive husband, Abigail becomes trapped in their machinations.

Saying any more about this film would utterly ruin it, as it’s a fairly predictable film. Within twenty minutes you know where the film is going which means there isn’t really a dramatic edginess to it and it moves quickly to a conclusion that is totally unbelievable, not to mention impossible thanks to basic forensics. However, this doesn’t necessarily ruin the experience completely, all of the performances are solid and it’s a real shame that the story wasn’t tighter.

The really interesting part of this film is the idea of an attractive, young, seemingly coherent woman in hiding for 18 years. Obviously, this is completely overlooked. Abigail leaves the apartment without any apparent distress later on in the film and her confidence comes out of nowhere. Her meeting the detective investigating the neighbours death is filled with witty, combative banter which is rather unbelievable considering she’s not met anyone in the best part of two decades. Selma Blair is doing her best, but battling a script that is at odds with her character. There is a real lack of research into agoraphobia as an illness in this script; the tension and drama should have come from whether she could leave the apartment to save herself or not. I felt that her reasons for hiding weren’t strong enough either, there should have been a real physical danger to her if she stepped into the world.

Amy Smart plays Lillian, the abused wife across the hall from Abigail. Her life is dealt with in the most superficial terms possible and there’s no real insight into why staying with her husband is her best option. There’s a tantalising line at the end of the film where Lillian says ‘I’m sorry, I have so much to tell you’ where I was hoping for some revelation, but that too came to nothing. I’m a fan of Amy Smart in The Butterfly Effect, but she’s wasted in a character that isn’t explained.

Re-watching the trailer I was totally struck by the pace of it, which is not in the film at all. Suited more to Sunday afternoon viewing than a trip to the cinema, Columbus Circle is entertaining, but utterly unchallenging as a thriller. I’m guessing it’ll appeal to people who like their dramas watered down.

Maliha Basak