"Home Room" is very much the formula of antagonist to protagonist, aggressive and non - aggressive, and this dichotomous formula which takes the themes of Richard Linklater's "Tape" makes for another very fascinating albeit stilted take high school shootings. Like "Tape", this could very well be a stage play because there are a lot of sequences that take place in one room and the film is very heavy on dialogue and character emphasis. "Home Room" attempts to learn the effects of the school shootings but never really tries to discover what caused it. One character proclaims, "You have to find someone to pit this on, and when we do, we'll make those fuckers pay", but oh, if it were so easy to discover the causes of these crimes.

Who knows what the hell causes these kids to click one day and shoot everyone to kingdom come, I sure as hell don't, and all too often than I'd like, people, particularly the authorities, look for scape goats because it's just easier to point fingers than remain clueless. Marilyn Manson, the only sensible word in the "Bowling for Columbine" documentary was a scapegoat in the Columbine massacres, but hey, music does not fuel homicidal tendencies. If they did, I'd be murdering anyone who liked REO Speedwagon or 50 Cent. Who do you want to blame? Psychology? Gun control? The media? Television? Movies? Video Games? Novels? Pick one. But, if you took those away who would you blame then? Its human nature, as “The Village” depicted.

Sometimes the simplest answer is the right answer. You or someone has probably said "Screw those killers, they're murderers", but have you ever been bullied? I doubt it, if you're saying such incredibly moronic words. As a guy who spent every day, every minute being bullied and tortured in school, it drives you to the point of a killer. So, it's understandable why something clicks in their heads, but as to why they decide to kill, that can't be answered. It just happens. The film presents some of those views here with two people related to the situation who find an uneasy bond from their sadness, Deanna the popular cheery girl who was obviously popular and privileged, Alicia, the Goth under-privileged girl with a bone to pick and they have at it. The dialogue serves for their characters very well, and there are some truly solid performances. Here we have three views of the spectrum of a tragedy, on the one hand there's Alicia, the potential suspect, played with much competence and gusto from Busy Phillips who plays angst and brooding very well and does it in almost every movie she's in. She's really good here and I bought her character.

Erika Christensen pulls in the best performance as Deanna, the victim, the bubbly prom queen who keeps high spirits despite the fact she was nearly killed. She experiences trauma throughout the film through nightmares and tries to remain two steps ahead of her assigned psychologist because she hates being talked down to. Ah, Erika. Erika, Erika. I have a soft spot for this girl, this adorable, sexy and beautiful actress who is also a very good actress. I have such a crush on this one, and it was easy for me to watch this because of her, but she does actually pull in a great performance here, then there's Victor Garber who pulls in a very solid performance as the detective probing the case, but he's not that side of the spectrum, he's just the bystander who's trying to discover an answer to the cause of the crime, why it happened, what caused it, and it's hard to say if he ever discovers the answer, because no one knows it.

Garber is always watchable and he's a good spectrum with the multi-dimensional symbolic stance: the authority figure, the detective, the bystander, and the parent. All the while I appreciated that this never tried to pretend it had the answers; I was willing to forgive the after school special theme, because it's interesting and fascinating with its odd sequences, flashbacks, and dialogue that probes what may have caused the incident. We don't learn who the killers were, what they did, how they did it, and what they're reasons were because the writers have us become exactly like a bystander, they leave us with questions looking from the outside in.

The sequence in the end is particularly the best in the film. Now while farfetched it is a good scene in which Alicia takes Deanne to a morgue to face death point blank, and to come to grips with death itself. Now, the scene was badly made, because again we have the dark gloomy hospital with no security which is false because there's a lot of security in hospitals, but it was very well done nonetheless. Why do directors in movies have to show hospitals as dreary dreadful places?

I was never sure if this was a drama set after a high school shooting, or if the high school shooting was intended to create the drama, either way, my very confusing thought didn't help any of the matters because this is a pretty one-dimensional take on the after-effects of school shootings. We're supposed to believe that these two girls, opposite as they may be are metaphors for the school shootings, one a friendly cheery girl who was grazed in the brain by a bullet, she would seemingly have been the popular one in school, while Alicia is the Goth metal head who would have been the reject.

The problem with this formula is, they don't represent anything at all regardless of how the writers try so. Their relationship becomes a dichotomous and somewhat very exhaustible fuel for the story. Two girls, both alike in spirit, but separated by social circles, side by side in fair Verona where we lay our scene... wrong story. Sorry. Regardless, the symbolism is so in your face that it doesn't take a genius to see where the writers are going with these two characters. One may be indirectly responsible for the shootings and may or may not have known what was going to happen, while the other is an unwitting victim who has had the firsthand effects of the shootings, we get it. One is an introverted Goth, the other an extroverted bubblehead; we get it, not to mention they're ghastly cliché.

I'm not sure about the writer's but I like it when symbolism is subtle, while here it's tapping at you the whole time like "Look how symbolic these characters are", while we're nodding with glazed over eyes and wait for the real story to unfold. The characters are plainly obvious, so obvious I was assuming they'd focus the story on a jock that was shot having to bond with a geek, but then, I guess that was thrown out for a less but so much more obvious approach. This does not study the effects and said after effects of a school shooting.

I imagine both characters would be mumbling fools, because, as you'd guess, a school shooting would be immensely traumatizing but these two are surprisingly upbeat, and Christensen's character is able to walk, talk, reason, and joke after having brain surgery for removing a bullet, and while the movie alludes to the fact that the shooting took place days before the plot, it's odd how able bodied Christensen's character is, she'd have to be in the hospital for two months before she was able to get up and about.

Hell, my heart surgery had me in bed and high like a kite, and when I did walk, I had wires still attached to me, and I got winded really quickly simply walking down the hallway and back. We do get to see very suggestive footage of the school shooting in the opening film, but that's hardly enough for a film that is supposed to study the effects of a school shooting on the victims and bystanders.

You know what I'd like to see? Lend me your eyes for a sec. I'd love to see a movie that takes place in a classroom where kids debate about the shootings, much like the ending. There is a great last scene in this showing the survivors talking about their thoughts, but it’s sadly stilted with trite dialogue like “Maybe if we didn’t call names, neither of us would have been a marked target”; it's a shame they didn't show more of this. I'd love to see a movie much like "Rashomon" where we hear students' interpretations on the shootings. It's a shame this couldn't have been that instead of just another buddy drama with heavy character study but no point whatsoever.

True, I didn't like this much for its obvious symbolism, slim story without a real point, heavy yet wretched dialogue, and clichés galore, but I'll be easy on this. It has good intentions after all with great acting, and a plot that makes sense, and it never answers our questions which is a positive, because there are no answers for such tragedies. Like a character here declares, "It just happens".