Exam (2009)

(In French, On Cable TV, November 2019) I’m almost always a good sport for closed-room thrillers, and Exam does have an exemplary purity of execution, as the entire film takes place in a small examination room where eight candidates are vying for a coveted (but mysterious) corporate job. As the exam papers are revealed to be blank and the exam’s arbitrary rules are absorbed by the candidates, the stage is set for a closed-room pressure cooker. (Providing a weapon to the security guard overseeing the exam is a literal application of Chekhov’s gun.)  As is often the case with closed-room thrillers, writer-director Stuart Hazeldine’s Exam can’t quite rise to the level set by its premise and opening moments—there’s always a moment where we come to understand where the film is going, and it’s not as exciting as anticipated. Some of the dialogue/staging/acting feels stilted and unlikely, but that almost comes standard with those ensemble-cast hermetic thrillers. A more serious problem is a script where the revelations progressively establish that it’s not taking place in the same universe as ours — it’s the kind of thing that lessens whatever involvement viewers may have in the result.  Still, Exam does rather well considering its limited means and austere presentation. It’s regrettable that Gemma Chan is only in the very early part of it, but the film itself is watchable enough.