Chatroom Review

Ring director Hideo Nakata’s first English-language effort aches to be down with the kids, but comes off like a badly informed dad’s guide to the internet. Aaron Johnson stars as posh boy William, who lures a group of teens into his chatroom kingdom. At first he plays therapist, but really he’s setting up a suicide club, and as he zones in on his victim, the action switches between the virtual world (a kind of T4 youth hostel) and the real. Big flaw: teens on chatrooms is a decade out of date. Even bigger flaw: the drama’s as inert as a screensaver. Wipe off that surface grime and all that’s left is a gloomy yoof movie lugging the same old baggage. Imagine The Breakfast Club on Mogadon.