Exam (Stuart Hazeldine, 2009): UK

Reviewed by Charles Hedrick. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

The thing about “Exam” that keeps people on the edge of their seats is that one never knows what is going to happen next, or how things are going to escalate. The good aspects of “Exam” is that the characters have a 100% authentic feeling to them, meaning that they were extremely believable. This can be attributed to the excellent acting and absolutely amazing writing. Another thing that I found to be amazing about this film is that it was all done in one room, unless you count the opening scenes showing the characters morning routine. This film shows that you can have a top notch psychological thriller with only, well, psychological thrills, and no need for grisly murders.

The story of “Exam” starts off with eight, highly qualified, candidates all vying for the same job with the same powerful and mysterious company. The way that these eight candidates are going to compete for this job is by taking an exam. Before the exam begins a man, who has dubbed himself “The Invigilator”, tells them that they are to answer one question for which there is one answer, he then tells them the rules of the exam. The Invigilator states that they will have to complete their exams in eighty minutes, if any candidate tries to communicate with either himself or the armed guard at the door they will be disqualified from the exam, if any candidate should “spoil” their exam they will be disqualified, and finally if a candidate should leave the room they will be disqualified.  Then he leaves and the timer begins. Soon after he leaves the candidates flip over their exams and realize that they are blank. The candidates soon realize that they are allowed to talk to each other, and the remainder of the film revolves around the candidates trying to figure out the question, all the while learning things about each other, and reacting to each other. The candidates start out cagey and on edge, then soon paranoia takes over and things start to spin out of control, leading to the climax.

The only aspect of this film that some may find wearisome would be that around the middle of the film it starts to get a little too overly talkative. However I found that the large amount of talking that occurred in the middle of the film was not long winded or wearisome, I felt that it was actually showing how the characters were starting to “get to the ends of their rope”, and it showed in greater depth how certain characters reacted to other certain characters. The reason that I love the way the characters react with each other is because of how authentic it felt.

“Exam” is a must see at this years Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Reason one being that the story will grip you up until its climactic end. Reason two being the incredible acting. Finally reason three being the authentic interactions that the characters had with each other, this is due to not only the good acting, but also to the incredible writing. Any questions?