[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.

Would you ever take the advice of your thirteen-year-old self?  Would you look back to your days as a batch of hormones and angst and say, “I was so wise back then.  What happened?”  Crazy, Stupid, Love. takes an “out of the mouths of babes” approach to serious romantic relationships and as a result an honest but funny relationship dramedy gets a saccharine sheen that completely overwhelms the film in the final act.  Ultimately, great performances and cute humor can’t withstand the stalkerish affections of an 8th grader.