[This is a re-post of my review from the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.  Disconnect opens today in limited release.]

Modern technology has radically changed the way we interact socially. Go stand in a line, and I guarantee at least a few people will have whipped out their smartphones and are happily ignoring the world around them. We don’t call anymore; we text as if that were the same as a discussion. As author, psychologist, and MIT professor Sherry Turkle recently noted in a New York Times editorial this past April, “we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.” Henry Alex Rubin‘s Disconnect ignores this contemporary issue, and sacrifices worthwhile social commentary for mere cautionary tales. Disconnect has all the dramatic weight of a driver’s education video, but then pads its thin plots with three loosely-connected narratives, two of which feature character actions so ludicrous that the movie becomes almost completely disconnected from reality.

Modern technology has radically changed the way we interact socially.  Go stand in a line, and I guarantee at least a few people will have whipped out their smartphones and are happily ignoring the world around them.  We don’t call anymore; we text as if that were the same as a discussion.  As author, psychologist, and MIT professor Sherry Turkle recently noted in a New York Times editorial this past April, “we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.”  Henry Alex Rubin‘s Disconnect ignores this contemporary issue, and sacrifices worthwhile social commentary for mere cautionary tales.  Disconnect has all the dramatic weight of a driver’s education video, but then pads its thin plots with three loosely-connected narratives, two of which feature character actions so ludicrous that the movie becomes almost completely disconnected from reality.

Director Cameron Crowe hasn’t directed a non-documentary feature since his 2005 flop Elizabethtown.  His new film, We Bought a Zoo, shows not much has changed in the interim.  Crowe is still painfully earnest with his adult characters who give big speeches and wear their hearts on their sleeves.  There comes a point where earnestness can become overbearing, and the movie becomes nothing but soul-bearing conversations with only another terrific Matt Damon performance to reign it in.  Crowe still hasn’t learned how to say more with less, which is a shame since most of the movie is so amiable that he doesn’t have to say much at all.

A quartet of actors have signed on for Henry Alex Rubin’s indie internet-centered drama Disconnect. Variety reports that Alexander Skarsgard (Battleship), Michael Nyqvist (the Swedish Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), Frank Grillo (Warrior) and Colin Ford (We Bought a Zoo) are all attached to star in the flick, with Andrea Riseborough (Never Let Me Go) circling one of the lead roles. Rubin, who’s best known for directing the documentary Murderball, is making his feature directorial debut with the ensemble drama that centers on how the Internet and modern communication impacts, and sometimes ruins, the lives of its characters. Hit the jump for a rundown of how the evil internet influences each character.