Disconnect

Disconnect (2012)

**** (out of 4)

Excellent character study looking at a group of people who have their lives damaged due to activities that they do through the internet. One story deals with a married couple (Paula Patton, Alexander Skarsgard) who are mourning the loss of their child when they discover that their identity has been stolen. A lawyer (Jason Bateman) tries to understand what happened to his son that made him do something drastic. A television reporter (Andrea Riseborough) uses an internet sex actor (Max Thieriot) for her own needs. A former cop (Frank Grillo) discovers that his son might have done something morally wrong. DISCONNECT eventually brings all of these stories together. There's no question that none of these stories are masterpieces and I think it's fair to say that many of them play out exactly like you'd expect them to. Normally this here would kill a movie but director Henry Alex Rubin and screenwriter Andrew Stern do a terrific job at giving us characters we care about, want to know more about and this helps carry the entire picture. I think this film offers up a very good concept of how people have lost touch with reality and sometimes enter dangerous situations online simply because they have nothing better to do or they're looking for some sort of connection that they can't find in their own lives. The film really does a good job at explaining all of these characters and really developing all of them so that you really do feel as if you know these people and understand everything they're doing and why. It certainly doesn't hurt that we're given so many excellent performances. Both Bateman and Grillo really stand out as parents who fear that they have let their children down. Thieriot, making waves on 'Bates Motel,' also is very good in his part. The entire cast really does shine and this here says a lot about their talent but also the screenplay, which gives them so much to do. Again, I think many people will see the ending coming but it really doesn't matter because of the emotional connection that you get with the characters. DISCONNECT is certainly a gem of a picture that shows what a great script, direction and acting can do.

I have not seen a movie like "Disconnect" in a long while. It has this style of telling about the lives of various different seemingly unconnected characters working up to one common story that intertwines all of them together. A decade ago, this style was very popular. This was first brought to prominence by the acclaimed Mexican movie "Amores Perros", and then we saw it in "Traffic", "21 Grams", culminating in the Oscar Best Picture Award given to "Crash." "Disconnect" brings us back to those days when complex intersecting story lines ruled the cinemas.

"Disconnect" leads us into the lives of four characters and their families. What all of them have in common is that they all have been a victim of some sort of Internet crime and abuse. The start of the film was very discomforting to watch. We witness how various internet chat sites can be so dangerous. This is true whatever the nature of this chat site is, whether this is a private pornographic live chat room or a support group chat room for bereaved families. We will see sexual exploitation, bullying, fraud, identity theft, and various other internet crimes in action. We will also see the adverse effects these crimes have on the victims and their loved ones.

The actors were all very good in their roles. I recognize a few of them. Jason Bateman (from "Horrible Bosses") is the busy lawyer whose introverted son was bullied at school. Paula Patton (from "Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol") is a lonely neglected wife who confides her problems on a chat room with someone who could have just stolen all their money. Andrea Riseborough (from "Oblivion") is a television journalist determined to go up in her profession even if it would cause problems to the young man who granted her the interview which would land her on CNN. The other young actors playing the bully, the bullied, and the sex site boy toy all gave memorable performances as well.

The pace of the movie is slow, and I think this was deliberate to make us feel how insidious these crimes can be. They can be happening to us without us ever knowing about it, until the consequences hit us squarely on the face. The director makes us of very dramatic camera angles and apt visual effects to emphasize his points. The editing done was very effective to create an intense feeling of dread and tension. Despite the PG rating given this film locally, the topic of the film is very adult, as well as the treatment, with scenes of nudity, sex, drugs and violence.

This is a very serious and very thought-provoking film for this Internet Age we are in right now. In our obsession to remain connected to our virtual world on our favorite social media sites, are we actually being disconnected from our very own families, and other flesh and blood people around us? A must-see for all netizens. Highly recommended. 8/10

A brilliant story to tell how technology has alienated marriage, family and friendship instead of connecting people. It is even sadder when all the stories are based on true events. I watched it at the Hong Kong International Film Festival and for the first time after almost 10 films thought this is the first one which can be publicly released for a wider audience because of its social message, especially right after two cases of murders of local parents by their adult sons who loved to play computer games.

Disconnect mainly centers on three sub stories which are loosely linked. There was nothing wrong in each character's internal logic or perception of the world: a lonely teenager looking for friendship, a wife confiding to a stranger on the internet because her husband cannot talk with her on their loss of their son, a young journalist trying to get a scoop on runaway youth turned cyber sex provider.

As the story progress, however, we see how these longing deviate and troubles follow. Some people were so longing for connection with other human beings but cannot be satisfied at home that they naively trust this virtual relationship on the internet or mobile phone – while on the other end of the line, their "friends" might well be abuser or bullies, taking advantage of these lonely hearts, intentionally or not.

Since the director used to shoot documentaries, the film is filled with an authentic flavor, developing with an urgent tempo. The cast are excellent in portraying they care for their families with wrong method so it looks like they are communicating on the wrong channels thus counterproductive. Jason Bateman is superb in portraying a concerned father who tried to save his son after realizing how much he has neglected him. The large portion of computer chat is displayed by text overlaying on head shots of the authors. And here is what we see how good the acting is, especially young Colin Ford who showed a strong sense of guilt on an innocent face, but also deep concern for his friend.

The characters are not lovable but you cannot help but feel sorry for them and keep asking what went wrong. It also makes us reflect what we need to do, as parents, as classmate, as a regular net shopper to be really connected with people we care amid this overflow of information technology. Just turn off your computer, drop your mobile, and go see it.

This movie has three parallel stories, with one important thing in common: real lives unravel as their presence on the media, especially the social media, spirals out of control. Moreover, as it turns out, each story ends up intersecting with one or both of the others.

There is Ben, a lonely teen who is hideously deceived and then callously exposed on the Web by two mean-spirited schoolmates. This drives Ben to make a grave decision that will leave his future hanging by a thread and his parents and sister reeling.

Then there are Cindy and Derek, who are trying to grapple with the death of their baby. As if that weren't enough of an issue in their life, they discover their credit cards have been maxed out. The private eye they hire, Mike, backtracks Cindy's and Derek's every online move, with unexpected revelations. Moreover, the result of Mike's investigation turns out to compound the problem rather than solve it.

Finally, there is Nina, an up-and-coming TV news reporter who gets her hands on the life story of Kyle, an older teen engaging in a salacious line of work performed online in front of a camera. Nina's TV piece is at first widely applauded, but its broadcast unleashes an avalanche of trouble for both Nina and Kyle, as well as for other people in their career lives.

A ready interpretation of the title "Disconnect" is to associate it with the dangers of "disconnecting" with real people in the real world. And indeed: people in this movie do communicate a lot via text messaging, and in chat rooms. In these spheres, things are sometimes not what they seem—and neither are people: two characters make up another, and communicate with someone else pretending to be that person, with potentially lethal consequences.

But the title "Disconnect" can also be taken as an imperative: "Disconnect!" Log off already! Otherwise, you will forget real existences cannot be edited, backed up, deleted, and restored like virtual ones. Actually, real life in this movie interferes with virtual plots in a way that even the latter take unintended twists and turns.

It turns out Mike not only changes Cindy and Derek's life (they set out to make a dramatic move as a result of Mike's investigations), he also is forcibly involved in the story around Ben. Ben's dad, in turn, is a legal counsel at the TV station where Nina works; that way, he is drawn on two fronts into the fallout from risky behavior of teens on the Internet.

While this is Nina's immediate connection to another story in this movie, the mere fact that she is a TV personality probably superimposes her story on the others: just as everybody is online these days, everybody still consumes sensational TV news. (Need it even be said: when you turn on your TV, you also "disconnect" from real life.)

The three stories progress at a similar pace and climax at the same time. After all the scheming, searching, plotting, and just plain misunderstanding emanating from cell phones and computer keyboards, the scenes suddenly stop in freeze-frame. Real-world existences clash in an ultimate, inevitable collision. The disconnect comes home to roost.

Why hasn't this movie been raved about? One of the best I have seen in a long time. Don't even think it got a cinema release in Australia. This is the sort of movie that should have Oscar nominations and a must see. An ensemble cast and all are outstanding. Jason Bateman is such an under rated actor but can just about do anything, probably hurt by Arrested Development although I must admit I did like that show. If you liked movies like Crash you should enjoy this. 3 stories going on at the same time which also have some intermingling, if there is such a word. IMDb rating is a bit low and I would rate it in the high 8's even getting close to a 9. Have banged on a bit as I didn't realize you needed to submit 10 lines of text to post a review/comment.