2:37 - Two Thirty Seven

'In high-school everyone feels pressure.' 2:37 starts with this sentence. So one can guess that the film is about life of the students of high-school and the difficulty of their life. Being a teenager is often hard because the teenager thinks that life is against them. In this film usual teenager problem is carried out. For instance, there are some students desire to succeed always, to fit in, to be perfect, and to be normal. One can come across this typical person in real life.

The characters in this film was really good when they acted their roles. I like all of them but I like some of them most. They are Melody, Steive, and the girl who kills herself.

Melody was lovely and calm girl. She was raped by her brother and then she became pregnant. And she called her mother but she didn't take enough concern. In this part of film one can easily observe the effect of indifferent parents on their children. The children who don't take enough interest feel alone and some time later they commit bad things.

Steive is really a man that should be appreciated because he is a sample of determination. No matter what happens to him he just put up and doesn't give up. And he is also patient because he doesn't stand against his deficiency and the criticisms from his friends. So I like him and I will take into consideration his patience and manners.

And I like also the girl who kills herself. She is quite ordinary. But one can understand at the end of the film that she feels all of her emotions inside of hers. When I noticed that the one who committed suicide is she, I was really confused at first. But after I thought of her, I acknowledge her to be right. Because she has nobody to explain herself.

And finally, I want to talk about the film generally. I like the music that played during the film. They helped me to feel the characters better. And the film managed to impress me.

Well... What to say.

I think i shall start with a confession. I have cried 4 times in my life. once when my dad died, twice due to a girlfriend in high school, and at the end of this film. This film deals with the real confronting issues of 6 school kids, forcing them quite uncomfortably into the open for all the world to see. i have never seen a film that deals with the human emotional condition as well as this. everything from incest to incontinence is covered here and i doubt there are many people who are safe from the sting of familiarity with at least a couple of scenes.

It starts off with a suicide. at 2:37pm. then without letting you know who it was that died, the story begins to be told from the start of the day. it follows the lives of 6 school kids up until 2:37pm. it interchangeably, and edited with personal interviews of the 6 teenagers, lets you know everything about their lives. their loves, hates, dreams, desires, secrets, shame, false confidence, self loathing, corruption and arrogance. the overall outcome of which is a sort of "whodunnit" trying to discover the identity of the suicidal before it is revealed at the end of the film. without spoiling anything i must let you know. do not feel cheated by the ending. it contains a very important lesson.

And now a warning. this film is definitely NOT for the faint hearted. Many people actually walked out of the cinema half way through when i saw it. Disgusted by some of it's content. Or perhaps it's that it's sometimes hard to face the cold hard truth of reality. This is what high school is like for many people. i'm sure most would agree.

It was riveting. I just could not look away. As the movie rolled on I started to feel that it was powerful and confronting, but i had no idea how much more intense it would get.

The movie gives an insight into what unfortunately is everyday life for a lot of school kids. Some of us live outside that environment and would walk by and not know what is happening.

Parents need to see this film in particular, just to see a glimpse of what their kids go through. Often parent dismiss their kids problems as trivial, but unfortunately to a high schooler they are massive. And unfortunately the problems can escalate into a tragedy.

Definitively a must see for all.

This was quite an accomplishment by the young director. Being a big fan of Gus van Sant's Elephant, I found the derivation in this film a bit distracting. If you haven't seen Elephant, that won't bother you.

I found the interspersed black and white 'talking heads' interviews artificial and contrived and the film would have benefited if they had been edited out. The ending was more graphic (violent) than needed and the whodunit aspect was also a little unnecessary.

These criticisms aside, this was a remarkable effort by the young director and his credit at the end was very moving. The film was beautifully photographed, and the hand-held digital camera was used to great effect. The tree scenes were nicely done. The actors generally performed quite well. Though I like Gary Sweet, the film would have benefited by using an unknown, in keeping with the authentic look of the film.

Definitely better than average film, and the director has great potential.

At 2:37pm in a bathroom at an Adelaide highschool a student takes their own life and the different worlds of six teenagers are changed forever.

2:37 is a brutal, honest and breathtaking film centered on the pain of being a teenager. The film follows one day in the lives of six teenagers, all intertwined, all dealing with their own personal dramas. While there are a couple of stereotypes in the mix – the beautiful would-be popular girl dealing with body issues, the over-achiever obsessed with his grades, there are several horrors that are as far from main-stream as you can get, including a social outcast dealing with a brutal illness and a young girl trying to make sense of a devastating event in her past.

The movie is mixed with documentary-style interviews from the characters, which some viewers may find a little out of place in the otherwise seamless narrative. The pace is also a little slow, but it fits with the feel of the movie. The young Australian actors are all stars in their own right, in particular Theresa Palmer who's heartbreaking performance earned her an AFI nomination.

The film is very well shot, with terrific direction. Some scenes are a little hard to watch – in particular the five-minute-long suicide scene, but overall it is a film that leaves a big impact on its' viewers. It draws you in right from it's shocking opening scene and keeps you guessing as to which of the six main characters is going to be the one to end up in the bathroom. Ultimately, it's a beautiful made, but slightly disturbing look at teenage life.