247 F

(2012) **1/2


Trapped in the ocean, hell yes! Stuck in a desert without water? I’m there! Trapped in a house with a tiger? Give me more please! Stuck on a ski lift? Um, sure, okay. Stuck in the ocean again? I guess. Trapped in a sauna. Wait, what? By now most of you know that I champion the “predicament” movie. I love to see how people would handle certain unfortunate situations (I would fail miserably in cowardice every time). As I was searching for something to watch I stumbled across the ridiculous-sounding “247 F” and just had to watch it.

Four friends decide to take a little weekend getaway to a lakeside cabin. Michael, whose uncle custom built the cabin, brings his “dumb blonde” girlfriend, Renee, and his girlfriend’s best friend, Jenna, who has suffered from major depression since her fiancé’s death 3 years prior (she’s kind of a drag). Michael’s best friend, Ian, comes along for the ride hoping to “ride” Jenna. As you might expect when you are dealing with twenty-somethings, there is a lot of drinking, smoking, and hubba-hubba. While inside the cabin’s (surprisingly spacious) sauna, Ian, who has consumed a lot of booze, finds the courage to hit on Jenna who summarily rejects him. Humiliated, he drunkenly sulks off, accidentally trapping his friends in the hot box when he knocks over some furniture on the outside. When the sauna temperature sensor mechanism is broken because of a bad decision, the trio find the temperature slowly rising with no way to get out. As the temperature rises so do the tempers and some painful truths are revealed. This film could be called “The Breakfast Club in a Sauna”.

What an odd predicament. “247 F” (the temperature when the human body expires) is more Dawson’s Creek-like teen drama than a huge "predicament". The trio doesn’t get stuck in the sauna until 30 minutes into the 88 minute film and Director Levan Bakhia unfortunately deflates the tension with a silly side story about Michael’s uncle preparing for a local fireworks show. Any time the tension inside starts to reach its boiling point (pun intended), Bakhia cuts to outdoor, wintery scenes, which has the unfortunate effect of cooling everything down. Also, I just never really felt that their situation was that dire. For example, they knock the tiny window off the sauna door, which offers some relief and conveniently they all seem to have plenty of bottled water. Not awful but ultimately not very good either.