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This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

"The Parlor" is a 10-minute short film from almost 15 years ago written and directed by Geoffrey Haley, who is actually a successful cameraman who worked on many big Hollywood films. In this short film here, he gives us his take of what it would be like to actually be in a room with the people you meet in a chat room. A man in his 40s says he is 15 to impress a 14-year-old girl. A boy who is actually the same age of the girl says he is 20 to impress her as well. Nobody cares about the obese honest woman. A man confesses his homosexuality to another man, who, on the other hand, thinks he is talking to a girl. This is a totally hilarious little movie, which also has some nice dramatic moments. However, I wish Haley would have taken a completely different path with the ending. It was nicely done how he switched the action from physical room reality to real room reality, but the final scene was a big no-go. Too unrealistic for my taste. I wish he'd have shown us how the chat room people actually exist in real life, how they leave the room, maybe go to dinner with their wives/husbands instead of hurting this movie with a truly ridiculous and unfunny ending. Still, overall a pretty good watch. Thumbs up and I hope Haley is going to write and direct some more in the future.

I've just caught this short film on the SciFi channel in the UK. Very important: Don't read reviews of it (including this one beyond the first paragraph), they will undoubtedly give the game away and spoil the fun realisation at the end. Spoiler warning.This film is simply magnificent, if you have ever spent any time in a chat room it will have you smiling at the end. The real genius is in convincing you that it is some kind of group therapy session, and then maybe a role-playing therapy session. You simply cannot understand why one guy calls himself Beth and why a 50 year-old guy is sitting next to a 15 year old talking dirty - and why does the guy get thrown out by the police for swearing? And then at the end it all becomes clear... and you desperately want to see it again to pick up all the things you missed.Simply brilliant. Don't spoil it for others by giving the game away though.

This short is very well done. The characters are all recognizable to someone who has spent time online. It may not be entertaining to someone who doesn't use computers often, but they're getting few and far between. The ending is a little anticlimactic, but is still semi-realistic. The best part has to be the admin though.

This is a funny satire of the whole chat room thing. An unflinching and painfully hilarious look at the secret lives of the most unsuspecting people. I'd like to see the writer/director of this short to break into feature film. This man is a genius.