In a year that served us with the Social Network and Inception we have a piece in the way of Chatroom (2010) that as strange as it may seem manages to drop between the weightier concepts of its two more esteemed colleagues. Nolan's world is the looser comparison but whereas dream and dream space are used as an extension of the psyche, Director Hideo Nakata attempts a physical representation of the Internet chat room, caught somewhere between abstract fantasy and an extension of ones persona in a domain that allows endless creative freedom for it.
Whilst you will not find any reference to Facebook directly, there is clear comparison to the Social Networks look into the effect of the internet on younger generations and their communicative dependence on it. The insight however comes from a different angle as we see consequence- Ostracism, broken parental relationships and obsession. Thematically we are in a darker world of Paedophilia, Suicide, Self harm and so on, our Subjects are teen caricatures Aaron Johnson (Kick Ass) plays the lead as William a seemingly causeless rebel and leader of the group which includes posh girl Eva (Imogen Poots), loner Jim (Matthew Beard), geek Emily (Hannah Murray) and self doubting Mo (Daniel Kaluuya).
When it comes to the execution Chatroom suffers from an overdose of its own ideas, all of which never materialise into anything remotely as interesting as the abundant pretences. For example there are two occasions where the film breaks out stop motion animation sequences in a naive attempt to deliver some parts of the narrative. Naïve is also an apt way to describe the cast whose performance is little more than comprehensive school drama club standard, coupled with a script which paints it's characters as vaguely existential. Nakata must take some of the blame also, the film is horrifically paced and even the 90 minute run time feels like a slog, lack of discipline is his ultimate flaw here multiple ideas without substance are no match for substantial development of a single idea.
