2:37
Directed by Murali K. Thalluri.
This is a great film! It starts with a school’s realisation that a student has committed suicide in the bathroom at (ahem.. “I can’t believe it’s St Ignatius”) high school. We then travel back in time to see the events, lives, trials and tribulations of six year 12 students leading up to that moment. Which one is it that will commit suicide?
This film is definitely worth seeing! The start of the film through to the inevitable suicide, 2:37 flows really well. Much like in Gus Van Sant’s Elephant (but without the boredom) the camera literally follows the characters around school from behind as we take turns watching the misery of their lives develop as they interact with each other on a ‘typical?’ high school day. In between these moments the director uses a lot of black-and-white cut scenes where the main characters talk ‘Big Brother’ style about aspects of their lives and childhood to give a greater depth into what are strongly-developed characters.
Many will find this to be a bit of an eye-opener as it is very easy to identify with the characters either ourselves or by linking them with someone else we knew in high school as the characters in many ways cover archetypal high school students e.g: the attractive jock, the bimbo, the disabled weirdo, the guy who’s grades are never good enough, etc. However, the tragedies that befall their lives are really quite extreme, and although they are common archetypes, they hardly reflect the suffering people face in high school. In that respect we are really following the lives of 6 very f^&ked up people, in what would equate to a seriously f^&ked up high school to have all 6 people facing such misery in one day. Not to say the film lets itself down, or doesn’t make its point with great strength — as it does! But you probably have to be a little accepting regarding that the 6 cases are extreme (or maybe St Ignatius is far crueler than Heartbreak High!).
Like many reviewers I surfed the net before I wrote this hoping I’d sound intelligent, and I totally agree with the stolen view that the coverage for this film really isn’t necessarily justified. Some people say that this film is good because now these issues are out in the open. However I don’t think that before this film we were all sitting around wanting to talk about suicide but afraid to… this is a something to talk about but it hardly sheds light on an untouched ignored issue at all in my opinion. Conversely it was criticised by a suicide hotline group because it didn’t explain ‘how’ to deal with or prevent suicide, and because one character causes the victim ‘lucky’. Which is ludicrous as a film has a story involving characters — some of whom have different views on suicide, its hardly the responsibility of the filmmaker to make it a “how to handle suicide” manual.
To sum it up, 2:37 is very powerful with great visual effects, great acting, and it’s great to see it from a new director. Kudos!
7.5/10
Michael Hill
