Columbus Circle [DVD]

Columbus Circle is the name of an exclusive building on the circle itself, the centre-point of New York (as all distances to & from New York are measured from this spot). Long-time reclusive heiress Abigail (Selma Blair - Hellboy) lives in the penthouse with only an elderly lady for a neighbour, she hasn't left the building for the best part of 20 years. She likes the way things are and is worried by change; so when her neighbour dies in suspicious circumstances, the police (Giovanni Ribisi - Boiler Room) are called to the circle and bring change to the building. When new neighbours Lillian & Charlie (Amy Smart - Crank & Jason Lee - My Name Is Earl) move in, they bring noise & domestic disputes and Lillian uses Abigail as shelter from domestic abuse. But are Lillian & Charlie really who they say they are? What do they want from Abigail?

Columbus is a smart & snappy affair, despite taking place almost entirely inside a single apartment. The sinuous and interwoven stories reveal themselves thread after thread and I found this to be a slow moving, but genuinely intriguing film with a capable cast that uphold this premise. Jason Lee's rendition of a sneering drunk is fantastic. This is truly slow to the boil but it's climax is unpredictable - if a little too Hollywood. There are a couple of minor qualms here; it does let your attention wander, the back & forths feel a little stilted and we have no real idea of why Abigail (Blair) is so neurotic.

Extra Content: Disappointingly, there is none on the Blu-Ray or the DVD.

Worth a watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon, but this is not going to blow your socks off in any respect.

Columbus Circle is set in a small exclusive area of town of that name, where wealthy residents live in exclusive apartments tended to by a concierge. In one such apartment lives a wealthy lady, Abigail, who is the heiress to a vast family fortune. A recluse, she communicates only via messages posted under the door to the concierge, who organises her shopping for her. She also has one older male friend who is the only visitor she allows, who helps organise much of her administration and also acts as a confidante.

When the elderly lady in the opposite apartment passes on, Abigail is nervous of newcomers to her floor and tries to buy the apartment. She is however inexplicably gazumped by a rich couple who shortly move in; and begins to stress when they turn out to be far from ideal neighbours.

Her stress is exacerbated when a detective comes calling, explaining that the death of the lady next-door is now a murder inquiry - and so she is forced to let someone into her apartment for the first time in years - and as the situation gets worse with the neighbours next door she finds her her apartment admitting more people.

The best thing about Columbus Circle is the gradual revelation that every character in the film has either another agenda, or for one reason or another, aren't quite who they said they were. For the viewer, this gradually makes Abigail seem more and more isolated and vulnerable, yet all the while she is gradually opening up to people.

The film's quite a slick Hollywood affair, yet manages to remain fairly tense and claustrophobic by setting most of the scenes in the apartment block. A bit more eeriness or perhaps atmosphere would have been welcome; there's a lot you can do with characters and rooms in an apartment block to create atmosphere, but the slickness of the production seemed to overwhelm that.

Nevertheless it's an enjoyable film with a whole bunch of twists thrown in as the plot develops, and another couple of good (if unlikely) twists at the ending, but it's a good piece of entertainment and one to keep the viewer watching and guessing.

Predictable by the numbers thriller. The denouement that concerns Abi overcoming agoraphobia is laughably unbelievable. Its only saving grace is the performances of the actors and the good direction. Pleasant enough film to settle into