Chatroom

Stars: Aaron Johnson, Matthew Beard, Imogen Poots, Hannah Murray, Megan Dodds, Daniel Kaluuya, Nicholas Gleaves, Michelle Fairley, Tuppence Middleton, Ophelia Lovibond

Director: Hideo Nakata

Perils of the internet chatroom. Five disturbed teens 'meet' online to air their problems and concerns in the 'Chelsea Teens' room; sometimes they venture into even more deviant rooms devised by the deranged minds of others.

At home, all their lives are miserable. Jim (Beard) is a manic depressive whose father abandoned him in a waiting room when he was seven. William (Johnson) is a destructive self-harmer whose father and authoress mother - clearly modelled on J K Rowling - despair of him. Daniel (Kaluuya) is an embryonic paedophile.

Social services and the law are after Eva (Poots), while Emily (Murray) just wants to shock her parents into noticing her (like by killing them). Just your average teens, then.

Jim and William watch scenes of real suicides on their computers, and it gradually becomes obvious that William, who persuades Jim to throw away his anti-depressants, is out to add the latter to that list.

Very slow to develop, with silly dialogue - 'Creative and positive: you really are an exclamation mark!' - the film picks up just when we've begun to lose interest, progressing to a satisfying conclusion. It's difficult, though, to distinguish between Beard and Johnson to begin with; they could be brothers (wth Cillian Murphy as a cousin) in real life.

David Quinlan

UK 2010. UK Distributor: Revolver. Colour by deluxe.
90 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 1, Swearing 2.

Review date: 19 Dec 2010