Circle of Friends (1995)

Circle of Friends (PG-13) Charming in a wee, conservative way. As a small-town Irish teenager in the '50s who goes off to university, Minnie Driver has a touchingly awkward prettiness. In Dublin, Driver and her two comrades, all of ! them virgins, lose their innocence with a swooning trepidation that almost makes one nostalgic for a more repressed era. As the blue-eyed jock who woos Driver, Chris O'Donnell is the sort of doting dreamboat every girl should be lucky enough to have as a first boyfriend. Then, he engages in an act of betrayal-a good thing, too, since by then the winsome likability of the characters has grown a bit cloying. B- ( 267, March 24) -OG