Browse-- My take on the movie with spoilers!

PLOT SUMMARY: Richard believes someone is trying to ruin his life by hacking into his devices. 

Are you into jazz music?

If you are, you’ll find yourself quickly changing your tastes after watching the movie.

Good music should always accompany good scenes, so when you hear trumpets and pianos playing, and see a man on a terrace doing nothing but looking shabby and smiling cigarettes and drinking beers, the music is bound to sound like a blare.

That’s is a major drawback of the movie; the music that tries to set a mood for the movie but fails because there is actually nothing going on.

Another weak point is the lack of character introduction and subsequent development of it.

We meet Richard, but we don’t learn his story or why we must sympathize with him until much later. And by then, we are too annoyed by the screaming trumpets and his incessant smoking and drinking habit.

The movie could have easily been a short. It’s basically about a guy who after a divorce, tries to get back into the dating world, but finds himself a victim of hacking. It ruins his life and no one believes him. Worse, every woman in his life wants to file a restraining order against him.

In a way, so do we after watching him being his creepy, boring self.

If you’re expecting this to be a slow burner, it isn’t. There is nothing going on and the end comes so suddenly you are stupefied.

Surely, this couldn’t be the end, could it? Without a proper explanation of what exactly was going on?

Guess what, it is what it is. That’s how the story ends.

BROWSE Movie Plot

The first scene shows us a woman at the beach who then comes and sits right in front of the camera.

The next scene introduces us to Richard who is best friends with the building manager Kyle. Richard is on the phone complaining about receiving extra items he didn’t order. The person on the phone doesn’t care and Richard gives up quickly.

Kyle remarks about how his furniture is wrapped in plastic and how the neighbors think he’s odd and possibly a serial killer. Richard isn’t amused his rented furniture is being talked about.

At work, his boss gives him an ultimatum to fire three people from his team. His only friend Claire tries to be nice to him and indirectly flirts with him probably to keep her job.

Richard is too addicted to his phone and online dating apps to notice he could be asking out the woman right in front of him.

While chatting with a woman online, Veronica, he also sets up a tryst with his upstairs neighbor by banging on the ceiling with his broom.

Veronica wants to meet him by the pool but doesn’t show up. He does, however, meet a kid who is also a prodigy, smokes, and calls himself the Lizard King.

Richard goes to have a fun time with Rachel but is barely satisfied. At work, he finds his colleague under his table, working on some cables. Richard claims he has no IT issues and suspects him of hacking him.

Kyle comes to visit him later to tell him his rent cheque is due, and Richard tells him he’s got it all on Autopay.

Veronica stops chatting with him suddenly and while checking her social media finds her having a small concert in a cafe. He doesn’t have ten dollars so he can’t get in, and Veronica doesn’t look too thrilled to see him.

Meanwhile, Richard’s ex-wife Roxy calls him to tell him to stop calling her all the time. Richard is mystified because he knows it wasn’t him.

His life spiral out of control. His furniture is taken away after his payment isn’t made. His nighttime pleasures with Rachel is leaked online causing his boss to fire him for starring in an adult clip.

Veronica avoids him and when he follows her, she kicks him and warns him to stay away. The police too question him but Richard has no answers. His debit card is declined. Kyle finally reveals that his cheque for the previous month hadn’t gone through either.

Richard has a gun sent over and Kyle tells him how one of the building’s residents had killed himself by shooting himself in the head.

Richard knows someone is doing this to him but doesn’t go to the police. Instead, he goes to the neighbor’s party, chats up with a girl who asks him to play the piano. Then while he is, he notices no one cares what piece he played, including the girl who is talking to a man in a man-bun.

He realizes he’s not interesting enough and leaves. The party host plays a few basic keys and gets adulation.

Richard realizes he cannot get into his apartment after his payments were deferred. He breaks open and mopes in his apartment.

BROWSE Ending Explained with Spoilers!

Claire comes to see him, kisses him, and then freaks out when she finds his camera.

Apparently, Richard has been a creep all along, spying on both Veronica and Roxy. How he goes about ruining his life isn’t shown.

Did he purposely over withdraw his account to punish himself for losing Roxy? Did he suffer from a mental illness after the breakup? Is that why he never went to the police, knowing deep inside he was the one who was screwing up his own life?

Either way, the movie ends with Richard on his favorite spot on the terrace and putting a gun in his mouth. Then he drops the gun, realizing he wants to continue his boring existence of being a creep.

Richard’s character fails to evoke sympathy. All we see is a brooding man who doesn’t really care about what is happening around him.

All he cares about is the technology that he can abuse to spy on women.

Scare scale: 0.5/5