Chatroom (3 Stars)

This is a British film made in 2010, directed by Hideo Nakata. It's his only English language film apart from "The Ring 2" (2005).

William's mother is a famous author of science fiction books. William feels neglected and unloved because she's named the hero of the books after his older brother. He's attempted suicide a few times, but he never had the courage to go through with it.

William has no friends. He spends all his spare time in online chat rooms. The film begins with him starting his own chat room, which he calls "Chelsea Teens". For those of you who don't know, Chelsea is a wealthy area in the centre of London.

After four teenagers join the room, he closes it to new members. It isn't specified how old the teenagers are, but they seem to be 17 to 18. Only one of them, Mo, is still at school. The others, including William, have left school early without A Levels. They might come from wealthy middle class families, but they're on the lower end of the education scale. All five of them are socially inept and live their lives in chat rooms. "Chelsea Teens" becomes their new home.

In the first conversations the teenagers are encouraged to get to know one another. They all have to answer the question "What do you hate most?" William demands honesty from the others, but he lies about himself. He says that his mother is dead.

As the film develops, we see that William has an agenda. To make up for his own inability to kill himself, he wants others to commit suicide. His primary target is Jim, whose father left him when he was eight. He claims to be giving him therapy, but he's actually encouraging him to kill himself.

Most of the film's action takes place on computer screens, but this isn't what we see. Hideo Nakata has made the decision to show the chat room as if it really exists in a dingy, poorly furnished hotel room. This is the way the teenagers imagine the room, not how it really is.

Despite the optics, there's nothing really original about the film. Teenagers bully one another online. That's exactly what they do in the real world. The only difference is that online bullying is with words, not with fists. A person who's weak in real life can be tough online. Nothing is as it seems.

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