Exam (2009)

  Imagine you are interviewing for a great job.  You are shown to a room with seven other candidates.  Each desk has a piece of paper with your number on it and a pencil.  You have 80 minutes to answer one question.  The clock starts, you flip your paper, and it's completely blank.  What do you do?

This is the situation eight strangers find themselves in while applying for a position in the leading biotech firm.  It starts out all kumbaya and let's-work-together but as the clock ticks down things quickly become more cutthroat.

This is one of those locked-room mysteries that has to be executed just so to work.  The dynamic has to be right between characters and there needs to be a constant escalation of tension without introducing gimmicks or obvious deus ex machina influences.  Exam provides its characters and the audience with very straightforward rules and stays within them, which is refreshing since it lets you try and figure out the mystery question along with them.  If you wish Agatha Christie set more of her stories in the corporate world, you'll probably really enjoy this film.