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2:37 is a 2006 Australian High School film directed by Murali K Thalluri. It shows the events of a single school day from the perspectives of six troubled students, leading up to a suicide at 2:37 p.m.

The six students/viewpoint characters are:

  • Melody (Teresa Palmer), who deals with a troubled family life. Marcus's sister.
  • Marcus (Frank Sweet), who struggles to meet his father's high demands of academic achievement. Melody's brother.
  • Luke (Sam Harris — no, not that one), a jock with a porn addiction. Sarah's boyfriend.
  • Steven (Charles Baird), a victim of bullying.
  • Sean (Joel Mackenzie), who suffers the social consequences of being openly gay.
  • Sarah (Marnie Spillane), who struggles with an eating disorder. Luke's girlfriend.

Provides examples of:

  • An Aesop: It's not always obvious when somebody's suicidal. Or as Luke puts it: "Sometimes, you just get so wrapped up in your own problems that you just don't notice anybody else."
  • Armoured Closet Gay: Luke's crew pick on Sean for being gay, and when Luke mentions an interest in trying anal sex with his girlfriend to a friend of his, he denies there being anything gay about it. However, the porn Luke watches is gay porn, and he has at least a casual relationship with Sean. When Steven finds out about the latter, Luke punches him in the face and threatens him with further violence if he tells anyone.
  • The B Grade: Marcus freaks when he learns the score on his science test is 87%. He goes to his teacher Mrs. Jacobs and frantically demands that she go back over his test and find 3 extra marks. She closes the door in his face. Marcus responds by slamming his head against the door in frustration.
  • Brother–Sister Incest: We find out that Marcus raped his sister Melody before the events of the film.
  • Cessation of Existence: Sean explicitly rejects the notions of heaven, hell, and reincarnation, instead subscribing to this view of death. He also notes that he doesn't fear dying.
  • Child by Rape: It's probably subverted. Melody is revealed to be pregnant, the implication being that the child may have been conceived when she was raped by her brother. However, the rape occurs the day before she takes the pregnancy test, in which case it would be far too early for a positive result to come up. Early in the film, it's hinted that she had a sexual affair with Luke behind Sarah's back, meaning that Luke is more than likely the father.
  • Deliberately Monochrome: The "interview" segments are in black and white.
  • Driven to Suicide: The premise of the movie is that one of the characters commits suicide at 2:37 p.m.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: "Uneven Steven". He walks with a limp.
  • Erudite Stoner: Sean smokes cannabis, and is fairly prone to philosophical musings.
  • Exposition: Done in a highly unusual way; the film periodically cuts to one of the viewpoint characters detailing background information or their thoughts on various subjects to someone slightly off-camera, as if being interviewed.
  • Extremely Short Time Span: The film takes place over the course of a single day.
  • Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Melody's father stops her from undertaking any creative activity once she starts to get good at it. He even forbids her from listening to music.
  • Head Desk: When Mrs Jacobs refuses to raise Marcus's mark from 87% to 90% and closes the door on him, he responds by angrily slamming his head against the door.
  • High School: The setting of the movie.
  • How We Got Here: The movie begins with one of the teachers discovering that someone committed suicide in a school lavatory. The movie then flashes back to that morning and shows the events leading up to the suicide.
  • Hyperlink Story: The different viewpoint characters' stories are more interconnected and overlapping than they appear at first glance. This is reinforced both by tracking shots switching to track a different character mid-shot and by showing the same events more than once when following different characters.
  • Jerk Jock: Luke is a star soccer player who thinks that school is useless because he is going to be a professional footballer. He talks through class, brags about his sexual conquests, and is one of the primary bullies who pick on Steven and harasses Sean for being openly gay. He is also secretly gay and has had some sort of relationship with Sean.
  • Market-Based Title: Called 2:37 PM in several markets.
  • The Oner: The camera often follows a character through the school for extended periods of time, sometimes switching which character it follows mid-shot.
  • Potty Failure: Steven suffers from urinary incontinence, as he was born with two urethras but only has the ability to control one of them.
  • Public Domain Soundtrack: The film uses multiple public domain compositions, such as Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and Erik Satie's Gymnopédie No. 1. (the latter being used both diegetically and non-diegetically).
  • The Reveal:
    • Marcus raped his sister Melody.
    • The one who committed suicide was Kelly, who up to this point had not been a viewpoint character.
  • Starts with a Suicide: At 2:37 p.m., and then shows How We Got Here.
  • Teen Pregnancy: Melody's pregnancy.
  • Time Title: It shows the events of a single school day from the perspectives of six troubled students, leading up to a suicide at 2:37 p.m.
  • Two Lines, No Waiting: The events of the school day—leading up to the suicide at 2:37 p.m.—are shown from the viewpoint of six different students, whose stories overlap and intersect fairly often.
  • The Unreveal: We never find out why Kelly committed suicide. This is the point of the movie; we see that the six viewpoint characters all had reason to do so, but since we don't get to see things from Kelly's perspective, we don't understand what drove her to end her life.
  • Virgin-Shaming: Luke teases his friend for being a virgin. It's clearly a sore spot for his friend.

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