Ce film est un documentaire critique de la société américaine qui tente de répondre à cette question : « Pourquoi le nombre d'homicides par arme à feu est-il proportionnellement plus élevé aux États-Unis que dans les autres pays ? ». Le titre fait référence à la fusillade du lycée Columbine à Littleton (Colorado) en 1999 où 12 lycéens et un professeur sont assassinés par deux de leurs camarades.
Vivian Bearing (Emma Thompson) is a professor of English literature known for her intense knowledge of metaphysical poetry, especially the Holy Sonnets of John Donne. Her life takes a turn when she is diagnosed with metastatic Stage IV ovarian cancer. Oncologist Harvey Kelekian prescribes various chemotherapy treatments to treat her disease, and as she suffers through the various side-effects (such as fever, chills, vomiting, and abdominal pain), she attempts to put everything in perspective. The story periodically flashes back to previous moments in her life, including her childhood, her graduate school studies, and her career prior to her diagnosis. During the course of the film, she continually breaks the fourth wall by looking into the camera and expressing her feelings.
The movie follows the career of a schoolteacher named Hisako Ōishi (played by Hideko Takamine) in Shōdoshima during the rise and fall of Japanese ultra-nationalism in the beginning of the Shōwa period. The narrative begins in 1928 with the teacher's first class of first grade students and follows her through 1946.
Harry Potter, now aged 13, has been spending another dissatisfying summer at Privet Drive. When Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge, insults Harry's parents, he becomes angry and accidentally causes her to inflate and float away. Harry flees with his luggage, fed up with his life with the Dursleys. The Knight Bus delivers Harry to the Leaky Cauldron, where he is forgiven by Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge for using magic outside of Hogwarts. After reuniting with his best friends Ron and Hermione, Harry learns that Sirius Black, a convicted supporter of the dark wizard Voldemort, who murdered Harry's parents, has escaped Azkaban prison, intending to kill Harry.
Two brilliant young aesthetes, Brandon Shaw (Dall) and Phillip Morgan (Granger), strangle to death a former classmate, David Kentley (Dick Hogan), in their apartment. They commit the crime as an intellectual exercise; they want to prove their superiority by committing the "perfect murder".
Charlie (Logan Lerman) is uneasy about beginning his freshman year of high school; he is shy and finds difficulty in making friends, but he connects with his English teacher, Mr. Anderson (Paul Rudd).
In 1928, Mr Chipping (Robert Donat), a retired schoolteacher of 83, is kept home by a cold. He falls asleep and his school teaching career is related in flashback.
The film focuses on 15-year-old Billy Casper, who has little hope in life and is bullied, both at home by his physically and verbally abusive older half-brother, Jud, and at school. He is constantly held to account for some prior run-ins with the police, although he insists that his mischief is behind him. Yet we see evidence of his mischievous side as he carries out his morning newspaper delivery, stealing eggs and milk from milk floats. He has difficulty paying attention in school and is often provoked into tussles with classmates. Billy comes across as an emotionally neglected boy with little self-respect. Billy's father has left the family some time ago, and his mother refers to him in the film as a "hopeless case.
The Estonian teenager Joosep (Pärt Uusberg) is being bullied by his entire high school class, the ring leader of them all is Anders (Lauri Pedaja), his accomplice Paul (Mikk Mägi) and three other friends Toomas (Joonas Paas), Tiit (Virgo Ernits) and Olav (Karl Sakrits). Anders encourages the class to continually beat up Joosep, and harass him in other ways as well, such as fully undressing him and then pushing him in the girls' changing room. His classmate Kaspar tries to protect him and breaks from the group, which results in the violence being directed to him as well. Also, in a homophobic atmosphere Joseph and Kaspar are ridiculed for supposedly having gay feelings for each other. Nevertheless, when the school administration and Joosep's parents try to find out who is to blame for the treatment Joosep has been receiving, the class unanimously but falsely accuses Kaspar of mistreating him.
In Canada, novelist Yann Martel meets Pi Patel, an Indian immigrant with some knowledge from Pi's late father's friend, known to Pi as "Mamaji", for a good book. Pi tells Yann his life story.
Pig lives alone in a windmill on the outskirts of town. The windmill sits atop a massive wall and continually blows away a dark fog that perpetually looms outside the wall. Every day, Pig winds the windmill to keep it turning, just like his father before him.