Chatroom (2010)

The dangers of the online world is s subject cinema is taking to like a wildfire ( see the 2008 thriller Untraceable for example) and I can see why. The new dimension of knowing people without meeting them, talking to people you can't hear, as well as the ability to be whoever you want to be with little to no comeuppance, is as intriguing as it is worrying. Put simply, you don't know who's out there.

With that said, how does Japanese director Hideo Nakata (Of Ring, Ring 2 and Dark Water fame) handle this London based story of 5 late teens meeting online for mischief, fun, and much, much more?

The story of young William (Kick-Ass's Aaron Johnson) an intelligent and extremely computer literate young man who may or may not have other motives, setting up the non-descript group "Chelsea Teens" leads us into the online world. Literally. Each of the 5 members of the titular "Chatroom" is seen sitting at the computer, or typing on their phone, inter-cut with their online persona,who looks and sounds like them, yet whenever we're in this online plane, there is always this unreal quality to it, completely removing it from the real world. While it sounds very Matrix-esque, it's used in such a subtle way that it serves the story very well, and gives us a physical distinction between the 2 worlds.

Hidden motives unravel and the relationship between the bunch starts to degrade into a dark, sinister and slightly disturbing sequence of events telling us the moral implications and the dangers of meeting people you aren't actually meeting.

While I seem to be singing mostly praises the film does have it's flaws, some of the scenes of the group sitting on seats in a circle felt like a drama class workshop, as well as the (mostly Channels 4's SKINS alumni) cast sometimes not pitching the right level of performance to the particular scene, these are nit-picks though as the film is actually rather brilliant.

Conclusion? Well, there aren't enough British helmed, financed and set films made to this calibre, though there was a Japanese director on board, the film felt very much reflective of the current wave of young and talented UK film makers/students, and I only hope to see many more to this standard, as a film being set in familiar surroundings is infinately more comforting than just another American yarn. This essentially is the movie that The Social Network SHOULD have been, but wasn't. 9/10.