Curapedi 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.

Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

jaroincabo This is an incredibly original movie nothing like it before. I can relate to this as a person who enjoys his privacy and alone time.

jlthornb51 A intelligent and suspenseful script makes this outstanding film a real treat. Sharply directed and beautifully filmed, Columbus Circle is easily ranked in the top ten tension filled movies in the last decade. The cast is truly incredible and the performances are unforgettable. It is, however, Selma Blair's stunning work here that really sets the screen on fire. Her smoldering beauty is only exceeded by her gifts as an actor and as the protagonist in the film, she gives what is nothing less than the performance of her career. She carries the story with grace and gravitas and because of her the story never loses momentum up to its shattering climax. One shock is followed by another as each surprising layer of this onion-like plot is peeled back, revealing the almost overwhelming truth.

silverbillings (Let me first make a little side note that I am agoraphobic myself.)The beginning of the movie, opening credits, some people may say that the puzzle pieces are symbolic of you having to put all the pieces together throughout the movie, some people would say it's just what the film makers decided to do. Personally, I think it's more of an Abigail bit; when you're agoraphobic and don't leave the house, as you can imagine there's not many choices of what to do with your time. I, along with some agoraphobic friends I've met on patientslikeme, spend a lot of our time working on puzzles. Something that keeps both your mind and your hands busy, something that you can watch progress, especially the 200+ piece puzzles.When detective Jerry Eeans of the NYPD went to first visit Abigail her timid reaction and keeping her distance is very understandable for someone with agoraphobia or social phobia. I found the arachnophobia comment rather funny, it's a natural reaction for people to try to understand each other and being told phobias others have is actually another very common thing for agoraphobics to receive, as someone's way of trying to get them to let down their guard since they can relate. I watched this movie with my mother, who doesn't truly understand my diagnoses yet, and she made the comment of how gross it was for Abigail to sniff the china cup he used, and then take a sip from the same place that he drank from. Just like with any other phobia, agoraphobics don't LIKE their fear of the outdoors, they don't CHOOSE to stay indoors all day with the blinds shut and the door locked. Every creature craves interaction, and for those with disabilities it's harder to get that interaction. But even if someone won't leave their room, or their house, they still want people to interact with. They still want to feel loved and love someone else, they want to feel the warmth of another's touch. She felt an interaction with that cup, not only had someone come into her house, but they touched and drank from something she owned.Many people have a hard time with change, they like their same routine and change will cause any range of emotions from fear, to anger. Abigail wants to purchase the apartment across from her, not so she can have more space, but so there is no change in her life. There's no new neighbors to get used to, and no chance of them being any different from Katherine, her deceased neighbor. Since she can't leave her apartment I would doubt she'd ever step foot into the apartment if purchased, or put any of her stuff in there unless she got her long time family friend, and believed psychiatrist, Dr. Ray Fontaine, or her concierge to do it for her. And from the movies actions, I would say her purchase of the apartment would have been just what she needed.Feeling sympathy for those in trouble, especially if you're A- a woman (I am too, just stating a fact, not generalizing) or B- been through the same situation, often times puts a lot of people in trouble. Abigail should have just called the police, but hearing the beatings of Lillian in the hallway triggered her PTSD and gave her flash-backs of her very own beatings. She felt the strong urge to help this woman, not just hide away from it. Bringing her in and caressing her while her believed husband beat on the door was her own way of caressing the beaten child of her past.Then begins the part of the movie that my title refers to. I only came to watch this movie for my agoraphobia, but the only thing that got me through the movie was my OCD not letting me quit out on it 47 minutes in when Lillian was walking Abigail out of her apartment and down the hall. For someone who hasn't gone into the hall for more than 11 years, that is absolutely AMAZING work! I was actually in tears watching her do something so brave, and having - who was thought to be - a good friend help her through that.I'm not really going to nitt-pick the rest of this movie, in fact, I'm going to skip a huge chunk and go to the last scene, the scene that so many people are discussing in FAQs and on yahoo answers and on goodreads, and I'm sure many more websites.Abigail and Lillian meet-up in the bank. How someone with such severe agoraphobia could go from barely making it down to the table closest to the elevator, could make it downtown Manhattan to one of the busiest banks in the state. Betrayal made her do one of the bravest things any agoraphobic could do, and not only did she take it on with such strength, but she did so without a single hyperventilation, or puking session - HUGE. Many people say that this has "cured" her agoraphobia. That she's starting her new life in someplace safe and warm and will live on a normal life. WRONG. Getting up the courage to leave the apartment once to save her name and save herself from the public's eye does not in anyway mean she's cured of her agoraphobia. My guess is if they kept the camera's rolling, she'd get on the plane, have a mini panic attack, get a new place, find a new home-visit psychiatrist, and never leave the house again for years.

robert-temple-1 I am one of those people who will buy a DVD if Selma Blair is in it, because she intrigues me. Even though she really comes from Michigan and is not from the East Coast at all, she nevertheless manages convincingly to come across as an East Coast preppie. I am not sure how she does that, especially as she did not attend university where she could have honed her skills at preppie-ness. A film preppie of an earlier generation is Stockard Channing, and in her case she was from the East Coast and attended Radcliffe, where she even achieved summa cum laude. So she is a real 'natural'. Perhaps the most famous preppie-on-film was the character Annie Hall, played by Diane Keaton in Woody Allen's ANNIE HALL (1977), but Keaton is a California gal, which is ever further west than Michigan, or so they say (is it all in the mind?). Yet another convincing film preppie when she wants to be is Michael Michele, at least as she appeared in the excellent TV series CENTRAL PARK WEST (1995), and she comes from Evansville, Indiana. So how do they do it, these hicks from the sticks (by which I mean girls who come from faraway and obscure places like California, Michigan, and Indiana)? How do they 'prep'? In fact, what is a preppie anyway? I used to wonder that very thing when I knew a lot of them long ago, in the days when they all wore identical tartan wraparound skirts held with gigantic safety pins and white socks, and earnestly pressed their clipboards to their breasts as they walked between classes at university. Preppies are above all a tribe, and to defy the tribal dress code is to invite ostracism. But never mind, let's get back to the film. (Or did we never even start on the film?) So there we were, Selma Blair is being a preppie again. This time she is a neurotic rich-girl recluse who is hiding out in style in a luxurious penthouse apartment overlooking Columbus Circle in New York City. She has agoraphobia and cannot go out. Then she becomes targeted by unscrupulous folk who, surprise surprise, do not love her for herself alone but who want her money. Who ever heard of such a thing in NYC? They work on her vulnerabilities and are incredibly clever and devious in their plan to steal all her money. It is hair-raising stuff. Written and directed by George Gallo, this film could really have clicked, but it falls short of being a convincingly tense mystery thriller in the latter part of the film. Selma Blair is entirely convincing as the girl, and was the perfect choice for the part. But the script really needed more work and thought. A miss, not a hit, but still worth seeing.