12/02/2011

His parents, who are close but very busy with demanding careers, occasionally find a bit of respite at the opera. But Dominik, a boy who dresses in black like Shakespeare’s Hamlet but is rather well-balanced, has no refuge or anybody to talk to about his schoolboy concerns and his attraction to another boy – the virtual "places" where his friends hang out to enjoy themselves amplify the poisonous effect of rumours and mockery.

Emerging Polish director Jan Komasa thus provides his young romantic hero with a disturbing alternative to the consensual dominant opinion maker that is Facebook, a virtual world which gives the film its title, Suicide Room [+see also:
trailer
interview: Jakub Gierszal - Shooting S…
interview: Jan Komasa
film profile]. Despite being computer-based, this world encourages a complete "disconnection", not only from reality (the members of this closed circle don’t leave their rooms) but also from Dominik’s real worries and tendencies. The latter finds himself pulled by the suicidal “mistress of the house”, Sylvia, in a dangerous direction he would never have chosen alone.

In the first part of the film, the characterisation of the protagonist is effective – by constantly following him, often very closely, we discover an engaging young man whose subtle nuances are well-portrayed by actor Jakub Gierszal. However, the second part, dominated by the virtual world of the game where he loses himself more than he finds himself, doesn’t really add anything new to the film’s subject (or to the genre, for films about the virtual worlds that emerged with the Internet are becoming a genre in themselves, as could be seen at last year’s Cannes Film Festival).

The hero’s entry into the inconceivably fantastical world of the "suicide room" paralyses the action by overly distancing his experiences not only from the previously subtle portrait of them, but also from possible psychoanalytical, philosophical or social implications and reflections which would transcend the mere commentary on young people and their strange way of living through a computer screen. The epilogue nonetheless brings the film full circle in a gripping way.

(Translated from French)