On_Line

Most films of this kind call strictly for a kind of voyeuristic response on the part of the viewer. This one rises well above that level because of its message and its unique manner of execution. It displays an interdimensional technical structure that works well, especially within the context of internet effects on ordinary human behavior.

In other words, it takes what might ordinarily pass as borderline pornographic scenarios and makes them the vehicle rather than the main focus of interest in showing how people respond to that novel kind of intercommunication. Skillfully moving from the computer screen to real life situations and back again, the film overcomes weaknesses in plot and credibility to succeed in creating an overall sense of purpose.

Not that the story or acting are uniformly deficient. Indeed, there are a few fine performances of difficult material here, as well as production values that rise well above those of most independent films. This is one of those films that require some serious reflection on the part of the viewer in order to get past preconceptions or prejudices.

Everyone can and should see it a little differently.

In New York, John Roth (Josh Hamilton) and Lawrence "Moe" Curley (Harold Perrineau) are friends, roommates and partners in a pornographic adult site called Intercon-X, where the fantasies of costumers may be satisfied, being necessary only a computer and a credit card. John is very lonely and has difficulties to deal with real people, and Moe is a "walking penis", only interested in having sex with women. John peeps Angel (Liz Owens) and the delicious Jordan Nash (Vanessa Ferlito), and one day he makes contact with Jordan and they date. Meanwhile, the depressed owner of a thematic bar, Moira Ingalls (Isabell Gillies), meets Moe and she falls in love for him, stops using pills and leaves her suicidal chartroom, keeping only touch with the twenty years old gay virtual friend Ed Simone (Eric Millegan), who is also lonely and likes Al Fleming (John Fleck) from Intercon-X. The reaction of each person outside virtual world meeting the other one is very different, but in the end, there is a message of hope.

"On_Line" is a very original and updated romance and I liked a lot. The creative screenplay is about a very modern theme that is explored in "Thomas est Amoureux" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0262826/usercomments-13) in a different approach, taking place in a near future. But in "On-Line", the story about lonely people that have difficulties to establish a relationship with real people is much more believable. In the present days, it is amazing the quantity of personal information transmitted through Internet and the number of persons we only know virtually. In IMDb, for example, I have contact with many persons, few of them are my friends in real world, but most of them I know just through the site and probably I will never have the chance to meet them. But IMDb is a site about movies, and not problematic as Intercon-X or the suicidal chat room. The cast is great and is difficult to highlight one individual performance, although I liked a lot the acting of Isabell Gillies in the role of the sweet and hurt Moira Ingalls; the direction is excellent, with a great work of edition. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Vida On_Line" ("The On_Line Life")

Well put together film that actually is very accurate. This is a very interesting genre when you consider such flops like feardot.com which actually aren't accurate, stupid, and silly. Here we have a real movie with surprising good acting and not to mention *OUT-STANDING* soundtrack. One of the better indie films that really deserves a viewing. A very key thing to point out about this film is the pace is rather good. The development of each player in the movie is well done, we really do feel for everyone which is not an eask task in 1 1/2 hours. Its easy to make a movie about this content and show unrealistic screenshots on the computer, this was also another area that was real and honest.

My only grip is would they please release a ANAMORPHIC VERSION of this DVD!! :)

good job Jed Weintrob

Living in the Cyber-Age, "On_Line" is a great film which tells the story of 7 people whose lives are all connected through the internet, specifically online chatrooms. In the world today, so many people's lives are connected through the internet, so I'm surprised that there aren't more films like this, but there's no need for saturation now, this film does a great job.

The cast are all fantastic. The wonderful Isabel Gillies is in a role that is a far cry from her SVU supporting character Kathy Stabler as she plays Moira, a young woman looking for love and who chats in a suicide chat room. Eric Millegan is great as a young gay guy also looking for love. Love actually happens to be a major part of this film, and is something everyone can relate to, be it On_Line or not.

This film, which won the jury prize at Cinequest (the San Jose, CA film festival) for best narrative feature, is nominally about two roommates who start an Internet sex site. But happily the film is about more than that. It is also about real life interactions, and about the confusing lines of public vs. private on the Internet.

The director was there to answer questions when I saw this on 3/3/2002, and the story behind the film was also pretty interesting. Most of the online interactions really did happen in real-time, although often over local network connections between people in nearby rooms rather than over the Internet. In one case people who were supposedly in different states were actually in rooms on adjacent floors of a dilapidated building, and they had to take care to make sure that the one on the upper floor didn't cause dust to rain down on the other person. The film was shot in 18 days on digital video, and the director said that the film will likely get distributed.