2:37 starts with blood coming from under a door and the implication that somebody is injured. The film then takes place over one school day leading up to the events of the beginning. As we see the lives of many students it becomes apparent they all have a reason to hurt themselves or each other. Pregnancy, incest, homosexuality, wetting yourself, all come into play as the motives. Like Elephant we see the same events from different perspectives and it's all kept relatively insular. The performances are great, but it also seems melodramatic as everybody has a problem. It soon becomes a bit obvious that it's the ones that don't speak up that have the real problems. It's a film about being selfish and not noticing the lives and problems of those around you.

I really wanted to like this film. I really did. The topic of suicide is not one to be taken lightly and I had high hopes that this film would present us with people we could grow to care about. And it did not. That's not to say I didn't care for anyone in this or that I can't understand why someone would want to kill themself. I've been there, who among us hasn't? But the key to a film about someone contemplating suicide is the audience's empathy with the characters. Whether it's the person about to kill themself or the people who must shoulder the fallout from that decision, we cannot have a one dimensional character throughout the movie and open our hearts to them. So who does this film offer? - a football player who believes the solution to his sexual orientation problem is to beat up people - a drug addict, who LOOKS like your stereotypical drug addict (way to be subtle there, Murali K. Thalluri). I find it hard to like drug addicted characters, regardless of other traits. In comedies it works well but in serious films it's difficult. Candy didn't wow me over (though Abbie Cornish was the lead so no surprises there. It's like she chooses annoying characters on purpose) but I am hoping Half Nelson will make me see things differently. - a boy who rapes his sister... I will make this clear now, I cannot sympathise with a rapist. End of discussion. To be honest, I actually expected all the kids to commit suicide, not like a murder-suicide pact but as a statement that no matter how different they are, they all bleed the same and they all feel emotions. We come from many places but we all feel. And if that indeed were the ending, I would have given this higher marks. So when it does reach the end of the movie, who is it that decides to end their life? The character least focused on. Now I know at this point, you could say "Well, that was the point, she was virtually a background character so it makes more sense." No it doesn't. We are given no motivation on her part, we know little of her problems. So for all we can assume, she might just be starved for attention, be it good or bad. She might be making a mountain out of a molehill as some teens are oft to do. Like I said at the beginning, suicide is not to be taken lightly. How do we know she hasn't? It's not to say her problems AREN'T important, but how are we to know? How can we be expected to care for her final fate if the movie doesn't give us anything to go on? That may be the intention of the film, and if so, it's the wrong way to do it. You can say I've missed the point. I say the movie decides to give me characters I have no regard for because some of them are despicible and some of them make stupid choices. I do not point and laugh at people who choose to take the hard choice of removal of their own life. I've been down a dark road more than once and I can understand the thoughts some people would be thinking at that time. I'm fortunate enough not to have lost anyone to suicide. What bearing does this have on the movie? It's my means of saying this movie should have been an epiphany. Instead, it angers me. All that potential wasted.