Disconnect

I went and saw Disconnect unintentionally. I had some time to kill, and this was the only movie in the theatre I hadn't seen yet. I only knew the names, didn't even know the story. This is one of the very few times I actually went into a movie completely blind.

There is only one word to describe this movie - Wow. Just wow. The reality is, this is an almost perfect work of film making, two thirds of which are nothing but fascinating. The film is told in three separate stories. The first is of a journalist interviewing an underage male stripper on his involvement in internet pornography. This is what I believe Magic Mike could have become - an in depth and fascinating investigation as to the real lives that these people have, one that we might not understand but one we never thought we'd want to learn. It was a marvel of film making beauty, filled with brilliant shots and a brilliant twist that, while expected, is also realistic and scary.

The story involving Jason Bateman, Hope Davis, and Jonah Bobo is the saddest and hardest to watch. It involves Jonah Bobo's persuasion to send a naked picture of himself to a girl he met online, only to sadly learn that the girl was not real. The story is all too believable, all too upsetting, and a true masterpiece of story telling, as tragedy is found in places one might note expect to find, and so is forgiveness.

The third story, involving Alexander Skarsgard and Paula Patton dealing with identity theft on the internet, is the weakest story in the bunch, and where I have to dock some points. While I have to give some serious points to Skarsgard for playing a beautifully understated and mesmerizing role against an equal amount of brilliant talent in a way that almost made it stand out the most, had it not been for Bateman's performance, the sad truth is that this story is far too similar to the plot of Identity Thief to take seriously. Bad timing, maybe? But more than likely is the fact that I don't necessarily believe that the tragedy comes from hunting down a thief, but rather the inability to rebuild after such a horrible instance. Sadly, this story is too unlikely compared to the other two for me to fully enjoy.

But that being said, there is absolutely nothing in this movie that is wrong or bad. There is not a single performance that should go uncelebrated. The camera work is phenomenal, and particularly the music was memorable. This was a truly memorable movie, again, only losing a bit for one plot that simply wasn't on par with the others.

Rank - 4.5/5