Sometimes I like to watch films like Locke or 12 Angry Men in which the whole plot develops in one place, because that characteristic makes the dynamic of the film very different from the rest of the stories that are shown in movies with the usual narrative characteristics, for that reason I decided to search the Internet and found Exam, a 2009 film to which I decided to give it a chance.
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Year: 2009 Category: Psychological Thriller Director: Stuart Hazeldine. Cast: Luke Mably, Adar Beck, Gemma Chan, Nathalie Cox, John Lloyd Fillingham, Chukwudi Iwuji, Pollyanna McIntosh, Jimi Mistry, Colin Salmon, Chris Carey.
Plot
8 job candidates face an exam, the final exam that will decide whether they get a job or not, however, the exam is not structured in a conventional way, the question is not clear, and what is required of the candidates is not that they do things, but quite the opposite.
Opinion
The story takes place in what seems to be the United Kingdom, although that does not matter, what we see when the film starts is that a group of 8 people formed in a very heterogeneous way, 4 women and 4 men, of different races and with different physical characteristics, enter a room where they will face an exam that will determine whether they will get the job or not.
Each of them is given an individual table, a chair, a pencil, and a sheet that says "candidate" accompanied by a number, and the invigilator in charge of supervising the exam gives them a series of instructions, the first of them, in that room there are no more rules than his rules, and indicates that there is a question in front of them that requires an answer, and that if they try to communicate with the guard in the room or personally with him, they will be disqualified, the invigilator also tells them that if any of the candidates intentionally or accidentally ruin their own sheet, will be disqualified, and also, if someone decides to leave the room will be disqualified. Finally the invigilator left the room, leaving the candidates alone and being watched exclusively by a set of cameras and by the guard, who will be responsible for removing from the room whoever does not comply with the rules.
Candidates will quickly discover that this is not a common exam, and that it will require that each one let out the best and worst of themself.
The film is not long, really the time that elapsed while I saw it was quite short, with 101 minutes the director gets the viewer to keep the attention on screen and not get bored at any time. It is noted that it is not a high budget film, had a budget of only $ 600,000, but it is nothing to be surprised, because the entire film is carried out in a single scenario.
The performances are fine, the fact that they are not actors with familiar faces is something that adds instead of subtracting the whole work, because although some of them I have seen work before, never in main roles as on this occasion.
Where I find perhaps the biggest flaw of the film is in the script, which is not completely wrong, but that leaves me with the impression that some things went wrong, which I will not mention because they have a very specific character and that we could consider spoiler. But something I can say is that I think the film plays creating intrigue in the viewer and then is not able to give a satisfactory enough solution, without less appreciating the fact that it manages to generate some pretty ironic moments.
Trailer
Score
7/10
Entertaining film, it is not essential, but you can see and get your own analysis, however, it is possible that some viewers may be dissatisfied, especially with the final resolution of the film.
