How is it that we now live in a world where we can make contact without
ever touching? How it is that we can interact, torment, and embrace others
without ever having to say a word? Jason Reitman's (Juno, Up In The Air) latest feature, Men, Women & Children explores what makes this possible by
delving into the extremes and possibilities of the internet. No longer a purely
functional service, the internet has become a removed yet entirely absorbing
ecosystem that now coexists alongside reality. Reitman successfully considers
this crux of the modern day: where displaying more and more of our identities online
is leaving what is left in our bodies in a fragile position. How does the
internet affect personal development and relationships when it becomes the
ultimate mediator that filters into every facet of our lives?
An array of shocking and unusual narratives converge as the film
presents us with a selection of characters whose stories all intertwine,
networked like the internet itself. Reitman's film takes place from a distanced
perspective, beginning interestingly in outer space whilst a omnipresent
narrator observes the human race's new and strange technological behaviour as
David Attenborough would of a colonised species, where something very odd has
interfered with the direction of our evolution. This allows the viewer to become
removed as heavy issues such as infidelity, eating disorders, porn and privacy
are addressed. But above all, the viewer begins to notice how the
uncontrollable acceleration of the internet can harbour obsession.
