Review:  ‘Men, Women & Children’ is artificial look at Internet world

“Men, Women & Children,” Jason Reitman’s new anti-Internet screed, plays like one of those email rants you’re better off not sending. Reitman’s world is not just wired; it’s a war zone. And the wreckage of broken connections that the Internet facilitates lies everywhere.

The question that keeps returning is why?

Not why technology is the film’s raison d’etre. Or even why something theoretically designed to draw us closer can have such an emotionally distancing effect — an increasingly relevant topic in the age of Snapchat and Tinder.

What nags is why a writer-director usually so canny in capturing cultural evolutions, so shrewd in probing the zeitgeist, so humane in his humor about mankind’s failings would turn so reactionary in taking on — or more precisely taking down — a computer-dependent society.

Has the universe unfriended him, blocked his tweets, slammed his Instagram shots, toppled his Tumblr?

The inherent issues raised by increasingly intelligent electronics could use the Reitman of “Juno,” so facile in pondering the hard decisions made by a wry and remarkably wise pregnant teen. Or some of that sage sizing up of corporate downsizing and uncommitted sex so effective in “Up in the Air.” Imagine the unsparing yet forgiving eye cast on arrested development and alcohol issues in “Young Adult” training its focus on seductive video games, online porn or the current obsession with public confession.

Unfortunately, the Reitman of those films is mostly invisible in “Men, Women & Children,” leaving little to recommend this clichéd vision of a virtual world. The movie is, however, reflective of the 2011 novel on which it is based. Author Chad Kultgen has a habit of sounding remarkably out of touch for one so young. Reitman and Erin Cressida Wilson’s script is more repeat and rewind than rethink.

The film turns on the interlocking stories of seven families in Austin, Texas. Though shot in and around the city, the sensibility on-screen would be hard to find on its streets.

The cast is huge: Jennifer Garner, Adam Sandler, Rosemarie DeWitt, Judy Greer, Dean Norris, J.K. Simmons, Dennis Haysbert and Shane Lynch are the adults. The teens, where most of the issues take shape, include Ansel Elgort, Kaitlyn Dever, Olivia Crocicchia, Timothee Chalamet, Elena Kampouris, Katherine Hughes, Will Peltz and Travis Tope.

Their one shared problem is the failure to communicate about what really matters, and that includes a lot of dirty laundry — anorexia, dead marriages, depression, exhibitionism, parenting, porn, prostitution, suicide, violent video games. And don’t forget the teenage regulars of relationships: self-esteem, peer pressure and sex.

The parents are, overall, a very unlikable bunch. Patricia (Garner), the extremist, gets the most attention and is the easiest to dismiss or despise depending on your temperament. An obsessively vigilant, invasive mom monitoring every call, text or move her daughter Brandy (Dever) makes, she’s looking to incite others as head of Parents Against the Internet. The actress has never been more one-note, or more off-key.

Down in the gutter she preaches about, you’ll find Sandler and DeWitt as the Trubys. Married still, but sex is another matter. They talk, but don’t really talk, then go looking for liaisons in all the wrong places. Meanwhile, their teenage son Chris (Tope) is addicted to online porn.

The heart, or what passes for one, in the film is provided by Elgort’s Tim, a former football star withdrawing from the real world in the wake of his mother’s desertion. Since no one does anything halfway in this movie, she’s taken to blocking not just her ex (Norris) but her son from phone and Facebook. Brandy — the only female teen of any consequence who is not a cheerleader — becomes his lifeline.

Their exchanges come the closest to feeling somewhat authentic, which in this movie is high praise.

Dever, excellent as a troubled teen in the indie “Short Term 12,” has other films in the hopper. But at the moment, TV is keeping her busy playing Tim Allen’s youngest daughter on the ABC sitcom “Last Man Standing,” which starts its fourth season later this week.

Elgort is appealing in nearly everything he does, whether as Shailene Woodley’s brother in “Divergent” or her dying sweetheart in “The Fault in Our Stars.” In “Men, Women & Children,” the actor proves that when life crushes, he can cry on cue.

But his tears are wasted, lost in the growing pile of problems that never gain traction, and never offer insight. Like Greer’s single mom, who is out chasing fame for her daughter Hannah (Crocicchia) by packing a website with provocative shots she’s taken. Is she wrong? Or Allison (Kampouris), who is literally wasting away with help from online communities with names like Thinspiration. Are they wrong?

If it is on the table here, you can bet that the answer is yes. Yes, it’s wrong. Yes, it’s a cliche. A few steps further and Reitman might have turned “Men, Women & Children” into parody — at least that might have made for some laughs.

Twitter: @BetseySharkey

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‘Men, Women & Children’

MPAA rating: R for strong sexual content, including graphic dialogue throughout (some involving teens), and for language

Running time: 1 hour, 56 minutes

Playing: AMC Century City; ArcLight, Hollywood; The Landmark, West Los Angeles