Disconnect (Henry Alex Rubin, 2012): USA
Reviewed by Melanie McComb
Disconnect, directed by Henry Alex Rubin, is a film that surrounds characters whose stories are lightly interlaced with each others who are searching for a connection in a disconnected world. The characters are all struggling in a major way; a family is struggling with the trauma of their youngest committing suicide, a young man is conflicted about being responsible for it, a young couple is coping with the death of their child while also trying to come to terms with their identities being stolen, and a reporter, trying to jump start her career, is in illegal communication with an underaged man who is a cyber-prostitute of sorts.
The film was excellently portrayed through its direction, inventive cinematography, musical score, and effective performances of its actors. Jason Bateman, in particular, was surprising in this film, playing against type, as a steely lawyer Whois trying to process his sons suicide attempt. One of the less familiar actresses, Andrea Riseborough, portrayed a stiff reporter with finesse and had excellent moments, especially when her character had her little private victories that she couldn’t contain. Her physicality was very believable for her character.
Each story within the film was emotionally taxing in its own way. It was difficult to watch a couple who was already dealing with debilitating emotional turmoil go into a new stage of devastation by having all of their money taken from them was painful to watch. Both Alexandre Skarsgard and Paula Patton had beautiful performance of people who were broken inside and a couple whose intimacy was shattered.
The other harrowing story that stood out to me was the story surrounding Jason Bateman’s character and his family’s traumatic struggle after Ben played by Jonah Bobo has attempted suicide. It is every parents fear and Bateman’s character is horrified to discover that in some way this was inflicted upon hs son due to cyber-bullying.
Near the end of the film, each story reaches its dangerous climax, and it looks as though someone in each story is going to tragically die. The filmmakers made the choice to let every character live and I enjoyed that choice. My interpretation of such a choice is that in life, we don’t always get to die. Traumatic, horrific things happen to us and while dying would end our pain, fate keeps us alcove and we have no choice but to persevere and breathe the unbearable pain that life brings us. I thought the fact that nobody died was a beautiful reminder of the human condidition and how we as human being persevere through pure emotional and physica trauma.
Overall, the film was very moving and I feel that while some of the scenes could get an additional trim in the editing room, it is a very good film that I would watch again and recommend to friends on the acting alone.
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