''Disconnect'' is a 2012 American

psychological drama Psychological drama or psychodrama is a sub-genre of drama that places emphasis on psychological elements. It often overlaps with other genres such as crime, fantasy, black comedy, and science fiction, and it is closely related with the psychologic ...

film directed by

Henry Alex Rubin Henry-Alex Rubin is an Academy Award-nominated American filmmaker and Emmy Award-winning commercial director. Early life and education Henry-Alex Rubin grew up in New York City as the son of a French mother and noted art historian James H. Rubin. ...

and written by Andrew Stern. It stars an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast t ...

featuring

Jason Bateman Jason Kent Bateman (born January 14, 1969) is an American actor, director and producer known for his roles of Michael Bluth in the Fox/Netflix sitcom '' Arrested Development'' and of Marty Byrde in the Netflix crime drama series '' Ozark'' (20 ...

, Hope Davis, Frank Grillo, Michael Nyqvist, Paula Patton,

Andrea Riseborough Andrea Louise Riseborough (born 20 November 1981) is an English actress and producer. She made her film debut with a small part in ''Venus'' (2006), and has since appeared in more prominent roles in '' Happy-Go-Lucky'' (2008), '' Never Let Me Go ...

Alexander Skarsgård Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård (; born August 25, 1976) is a Swedish actor. Born in Stockholm, he began acting at age seven but quit at 13. After serving in the Swedish military, Skarsgård returned to acting and gained his first role in th ...

Max Thieriot Maximillion Drake Thieriot (; born October 14, 1988) is an American actor and director. He made his acting debut in the 2004 adventure comedy film '' Catch That Kid''. Thieriot has since appeared in the action comedy ''The Pacifier'' (2005), the ...

Colin Ford Colin Ford (born September 12, 1996) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Josh Wheeler in '' Daybreak'', Joe McAlister in '' Under the Dome'', the voice of Jake on ''Jake and the Never Land Pirates'', Mikey on ''Can You Teach My Al ...

, and

Jonah Bobo Jonah Bobo (born ) is an American actor and musician. He is best known for his roles as Danny Budwing in the 2005 film '' Zathura: A Space Adventure'', Robbie Weaver in the 2011 film ''Crazy, Stupid, Love'', and the voice of Austin on the Nick ...

. The film explores how people experience the negative sides of modern communication technology by following three interconnecting stories.

Plot

Ambitious, up-and-coming reporter Nina Dunham interviews an underage video chat-room stripper named Kyle. Kyle, a runaway, works for a man named Harvey in a "house" with other chat-room strippers. However, after the interview achieves some prominence, the FBI demands that she reveal the address of the house so that they can shut down the operation. Since she has paid Kyle in order to make initial contact, she may have broken the law. As a result, police and her employer also put pressure on her to cooperate. Nina wants to save him from the business, yet fears losing his trust in the process. Kyle reluctantly gives her the address, but Harvey is tipped off and the entire household flees. Nina follows them to a motel where they're staying and asks Kyle to leave with her. Kyle is willing to do so at first, but when Nina is hesitant to guarantee him safe haven in her home, he refuses. Harvey watches them argue, then slaps Nina. The entire group of chat-room strippers leave and Nina drives away in tears. Two boys, Jason and his friend Frye,

impersonate An impersonator is someone who imitates or copies the behavior or actions of another. There are many reasons for impersonating someone: *Entertainment: An entertainer impersonates a celebrity, generally for entertainment, and makes fun of ...

a girl named "Jessica Rhony" on Facebook Messenger and convince teenager Ben (the son of Rich, a lawyer for the TV station where Nina works) to send a nude picture of himself. The boys distribute it to classmates and the picture circulates to nearly everyone in their grade. Ben is so embarrassed by this

cyber bullying Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic means. Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are also known as online bullying. It has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers, as the digital s ...

that he attempts suicide by

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging ...

himself and ends up in a coma. Rich doggedly searches Ben's social media, looking for answers, and begins chatting with "Jessica". Rich visits Ben in the hospital, where he meets Jason, who falsely calls himself Mike. Jason's father (who is actually named Mike) discovers what Jason and Frye have been doing and is furious. However, he protects his son by erasing the evidence on Frye's iPad. Later, Rich discovers the identity of "Jessica" and angrily goes to Mike's house, which results in a physical altercation. Jason tries to intervene and Rich hits him with a hockey stick. The fight ends when Mike hits Rich, who falls to the ground. A young married couple, Derek and Cindy, are still devastated due to a tragedy that occurred two years earlier: the death of their only son of

SIDS Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the sudden unexplained death of a child of less than one year of age. Diagnosis requires that the death remain unexplained even after a thorough autopsy and detailed death scene investigation. SIDS usua ...

. Cindy cannot stop mourning, and Derek cannot talk about their loss or deal with his feelings. One day, the couple finds their identities have been stolen online. They hire private detective Mike (Jason's father) to find the thief; after discovering that Cindy has been regularly chatting on a support group website, Mike determines who the identity thief is. Cindy and Derek go after the suspect, Stephen Schumacher, following him and even breaking into his home for evidence. Just before Derek plans to confront him at his front door, Mike calls to tell him that Schumacher is not their man, and that Schumacher too was a victim of the thief. Schumacher, who has noticed Cindy and Derek stalking him, confronts them in their car with a rifle; however, Derek, a former Marine, disarms him and forces him back into his house. Cindy is able to coax the gun away by explaining that Schumacher has been comforting her online. The film ends without any of the stories being resolved, yet all of the characters have stopped "disconnecting" and grown closer to the ones they love.

Cast

as Rich Boyd * Hope Davis as Lydia Boyd * Frank Grillo as Mike Dixon * Michael Nyqvist as Stephen Schumacher * Paula Patton as Cindy Hull *

as Nina Dunham *

as Derek Hull * Daniella Rahme as Anne Dixon *

as Kyle *

as Jason Dixon *

as Ben Boyd *

Haley Ramm Haley Michelle Ramm (born March 26, 1992) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Jen Long in the police procedural series ''Without a Trace'' (2007–2008), Brenna Carver in the ABC Family drama '' Chasing Life'' (2014–2015), an ...

as Abby Boyd *

Norbert Leo Butz Norbert Leo Butz (born January 30, 1967) is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his work in Broadway theatre. He is a two-time winner of the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, and is one of only nine actors ever to have won th ...

as Peter * Kasi Lemmons as Roberta Washington *

John Sharian John Sharian (born John Shahnazarian) is an English actor of Armenian descent. He appeared in the film '' The Machinist'' (2004). Education John Sharian attended the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut and later the Kenyon College in Gambier ...

as Ross Lynd *

Marc Jacobs Marc Jacobs (born April 9, 1963) is an American fashion designer. He is the head designer for his own fashion label, Marc Jacobs, and formerly Marc by Marc Jacobs, a diffusion line, which was produced for approximately 15 years, before it was ...

as Harvey *Aviad Bernstein as Frye *Teresa Celentano as Maria *Cole Mohr as Cole *Kevin Csolak as Shane *Ella Lentini as Cassie *

Tessa Albertson Tessa Albertson is an American actress. She plays Caitlin Miller on the television series '' Younger''. Early life Albertson was born in New York City. After high school graduation, she took time off for her acting career before attending Pri ...

as Isabella * Erin Wilhelmi as Tracy *Ryder Gering as drive by bully 1 *Andrew Seddon as drive by bully 2 *Nicholas Zakotiria as Muscle Head *Alex Manette as McManus *Adalberto Bermudez as gym owner *Deidre Daly as math teacher *Darlene Troiano as customer at dry cleaners *Mark Zupan as drug dealer *Katelin Baxter as webcam model 1 *Jackie Austin as webcam model 2

Reception

Box office

''Disconnect'' opened in a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unit ...

on April 12, 2013 in 15 theaters and grossed $124,000 with an average of $8,267 per theater ranking #31 at the box office. The film's widest release domestically was 180 theaters and it ended up earning $1,436,900 in the United States and $70,448 internationally for a total of $1,507,310.

Critical response

''Disconnect'' received a score of 70% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

based on 79 reviews with an average rating of 6.7/10. The critical consensus states "It's didactic in spots and melodramatic in others, but ''Disconnect'' strong cast helps make it a timely, effective exploration of modern society's technological overload". The film also has a score of 64 out of 100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

based on 24 critics indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...

'' gave the film four out of four stars and wrote "Even when the dramatic stakes are raised to the point of pounding music accompanying super-slow motion, potentially tragic violence, "Disconnect" struck a chord with me in a way few films have in recent years. I believed the lives of these people. I believed they'd do the drastic things they do in the face of crisis. I ached for them when things went terribly wrong and rooted for them when there were glimmers of hope. You should see this movie. Please...There wasn't a moment during this movie when I thought about anything other than this movie."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Disconnect 2012 drama films 2012 thriller drama films 2012 independent films American independent films American thriller drama films Films scored by Max Richter Films about bullying Films about computing Films about dysfunctional families Films about journalists Films about prostitution in the United States Films about widowhood Films shot in California Films shot in New York (state) Films about social media Hyperlink films LD Entertainment films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films