Movies don't really get made like this anymore. Honestly, for good reason. If you've ever spent time digging through the weirder corners of early 80s cinema, you’ve likely stumbled upon Circle of Two 1981. It’s a film that exists in a strange, hazy bubble of Canadian tax-shelter filmmaking, featuring a legendary actor near the end of his life and a young starlet just beginning hers. It is uncomfortable. It is visually striking. And it is deeply, deeply weird.
The premise is basically the ultimate "forbidden love" trope taken to a logical, if slightly creepy, extreme. You have Richard Burton, the voice of a generation, playing Ashley St. Clair, a 60-year-old artist who has completely lost his spark. He’s grumpy, isolated, and living in Toronto. Then enters Tatum O’Neal as Sarah Norton, a 16-year-old student who becomes his muse. It sounds like the setup for a standard mid-life crisis drama, but the age gap—44 years in real life and roughly the same in the script—hangs over every frame like a heavy fog.
What Actually Happens in Circle of Two 1981?
Let’s get the plot details straight because people often misremember how the film handles its central relationship. Sarah isn't just some random kid; she’s an aspiring writer who finds St. Clair’s charcoal drawings in a trash bin. She tracks him down. She’s the aggressor in the relationship, if you can call it that. She pursues him with the kind of single-minded intensity that only a teenager who thinks they’ve found "true art" can muster.
Burton’s character resists at first. He knows it’s wrong. He knows the world won’t understand. But eventually, the loneliness wins out. They share meals. They talk about life. They walk through rainy Toronto streets. Director Jules Dassin, who was famous for noir classics like Rififi, shoots the whole thing with a soft-focus, almost dreamlike quality. It’s trying to be a poem, but the subject matter feels like a police report.
The film doesn't shy away from the fallout. Sarah’s parents, played by Kate Reid and Donald Pleasence, are rightfully horrified. Pleasence, in particular, brings a frantic energy to the role of the father that contrasts sharply with Burton’s weary, gravel-voiced stoicism. There is a specific scene where the father confronts St. Clair that feels remarkably grounded compared to the rest of the movie's "star-crossed lovers" vibe. It reminds the audience that in the real world, this isn't a romance; it's a scandal.
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The Richard Burton Factor
By the time Circle of Two 1981 went into production, Richard Burton was not the man who had electrified audiences in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. He was frail. His health was failing due to years of legendary alcohol consumption. You can see it in his eyes. There’s a certain "lived-in" quality to his performance that works for a washed-up artist, but it also makes the romantic subplot feel even more jarring.
Watching him interact with Tatum O’Neal is a lesson in cognitive dissonance. O'Neal, fresh off the success of Paper Moon and The Bad News Bears, was trying to transition into adult roles. She was 16 or 17 during filming. The chemistry isn't exactly "romantic" in the traditional sense; it feels more like a confused girl looking for a father figure and a dying man looking for a reason to pick up a paintbrush.
Critics at the time were... let's just say "not kind." Roger Ebert famously gave it a low rating, questioning why such talented people would gather to make something so fundamentally misguided. But that’s the thing about 1981. The film industry was in a transitional phase. Tax shelter laws in Canada allowed for a massive influx of cash into productions that might never have been greenlit in Hollywood. This gave us some classics (like The Changeling or Videodrome), but it also gave us bizarre curiosities like this one.
Why the Film Failed to Find an Audience
It’s hard to market a movie where the "hero" is a senior citizen dating a minor. Even in the more permissive cultural landscape of the early 80s, this was a tough sell. The film had a very limited theatrical release and mostly faded into the background of late-night cable rotations and bargain-bin VHS tapes.
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One of the biggest issues is the pacing. It’s slow. Really slow. Dassin focuses on the internal lives of the characters, which means long stretches of dialogue that feel more like a stage play than a movie. If you’re looking for a fast-paced drama, this isn’t it. It’s a mood piece. It’s about the atmosphere of a cold, grey Toronto and the desperation of two people trying to find a connection across a massive generational chasm.
Also, the ending. Without spoiling the specifics for the three people who haven't seen it, the resolution is bittersweet and somewhat ambiguous. It doesn't give you the "happy ever after" that a traditional romance would, nor does it lean fully into the tragedy. It just sort of... ends. It leaves you sitting there wondering what the point of the last 100 minutes was.
A Technical Look at the Production
Despite the narrative flaws, there is some genuine craft here. The cinematography by Lazlo George is actually quite beautiful. He captures the textures of the artist’s studio—the charcoal dust, the canvas, the way light hits a dusty window—with a tactile quality.
The score, composed by Philippe Sarde, is another highlight. Sarde was a master of melancholy, and his work here elevates the film above its "movie of the week" premise. It’s lush and orchestral, trying to convince the audience that they are watching a grand tragedy rather than a questionable indie flick.
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- The movie was filmed primarily in Toronto, Ontario.
- It was based on the novel A Nice Jewish Boy by Mary Manning.
- It remains one of the few English-language films directed by Jules Dassin late in his career.
Is It Worth Watching Today?
Honestly? It depends on what you're looking for. If you’re a Richard Burton completist, it’s a must-watch simply to see one of his final performances. He still has that voice. That incredible, resonant baritone that could make a grocery list sound like Shakespeare. There are moments of genuine pathos in his performance that remind you why he was a legend.
If you’re interested in film history and the "Tax Shelter Era" of Canadian cinema, Circle of Two 1981 is a fascinating artifact. It represents a specific moment in time when money was being thrown at projects based on the prestige of the names attached rather than the viability of the script.
However, if you are sensitive to themes involving age-gap relationships that lean into "grooming" territory, you might want to skip this one. It’s a difficult watch by modern standards. The film asks for a level of empathy for the protagonist that many viewers today simply won't be willing to give. It’s a relic of a different era of storytelling, for better or worse.
Practical Insights for Film Enthusiasts
If you decide to track down this movie, here are a few things to keep in mind to get the most out of the experience:
- Look for the uncut version: Some television edits over the years chopped out significant character development to fit a time slot, making the relationship feel even more abrupt.
- Contextualize the leads: Research Richard Burton’s life in 1980. Knowing about his health struggles and his marriage to Susan Hunt at the time adds a layer of reality to his performance as a man facing his own mortality.
- Watch for the Toronto landmarks: For residents or fans of the city, the film serves as a great time capsule of what Toronto looked like before the massive skyscraper boom of the late 20th century.
- Compare with The Collector: If you want to see another film where a man "captures" a muse (though in a much darker, thriller sense), check out The Collector (1965). It provides an interesting contrast in how cinema handles obsession.
Instead of just dismissing it as a "bad movie," try to view it as a failed experiment in prestige drama. It’s a movie that aimed for the stars and tripped over its own feet, but the fingerprints of the talented people involved are still all over it. You don't have to like it to find it interesting. In a world of polished, corporate-tested streaming content, there’s something almost refreshing about a movie this weird and uncompromisingly uncomfortable.
To really understand the legacy of Circle of Two 1981, you have to look at it as the end of an era. It was one of the last gasps of a certain kind of "adult" drama that relied on star power and high-concept controversy before the blockbuster age fully took over. It’s not a comfortable watch, and it’s certainly not for everyone, but it remains a singular piece of 80s film history that refuses to be forgotten.