Review of April Showers (2009) by Elizabeth N — 16 Jul 2009

A friend recommended that I watch this film because I love the Gus Van Sant film 'Elephent' so much and both films deal with similar issues.

In some ways this film holds so much more emotion and depth than Van Sant's, which is hardly suprising considering 'April Showers' deals with the tramatic experience of living with the aftermath (whereas 'Elephent' is used as a way of examining what makes young people walk into a school holding a gun) and was based on the directors real experience of living through the Columbine shooting. The fact that the main characters we were presented with were not only friends with April (one of the victims) but also with the shooter was something else which added to the heartbreaking reality the story had. One of the saddest moments for me was watching Sean inform Nick that it was his best friend who had been shooting at them - watching Nick's devastated reaction and his refusal to accept the truth almost broke my heart. I also felt huge sympathy for Jason, a boy who blamed himself for certain factors outside of his control. He didn't ask for someone to come in and turn his world upside down, and he didn't deserve to feel so guilty over his actions when that happened.

I also thought the camera work and the cinematography and some of the music help to add to the sober feeling the film possed. That said I still think Van Sant's use of cinematography, camera angles and CCTV type footage was better, which is why this film looses out a little to 'Elephent' in my mind - that said I still thought this film was a beautifuly told tragic story and it is worth watching. And when the credits rolled the list of names of people who have died in American school shootings is chilling, especially because there are so many we don't even hear about.