My Review of The 24th Day (2004)

Written And Directed by Tony Piccirillo

Tom: "You know you are a perfect example of what is wrong with this world. No one will take a stand and say that it's me. I'm guilty, I did it. You fucked up. You lived by your own rules and not you have to pay for that."

Dan: "Because I met you at a bar and came back with you, I deserve this?"

Tom: "You came home with me twice."

Dan: "And that makes me some kind of monster? And by the way if you remember correctly you invited me back here. God damn it, you set me up."

Tom: "You always have to play like you're the innocent one."

A one night stand can always come back to haunt and in this movie, it's exactly this that has our two leading characters at odds with one another in this intense two hander of sorts. There are a few other characters but they're not really of note here.

Anyways, the usually very safe Dan (James Marsden) meets the rather intense Tom (Scott Speedman) at a bar and soon leaves his friend Isabella to go back to Tom's place. Instead of getting more familiar with one another, Tom takes an overzealous interest in Dan's sexual history and its not long before Dan realises that this isn't the first time he's encountered Tom.

Five years before the two of them shared a drunken one night stand. Tom reveals that he's HIV Positive and assuming that Dan is responsible for his misfortune, he winds up keeping Dan prisoner in his depressing apartment for the majority of the movie while getting a test to prove whether or not Dan himself has HIV.

It's a tense back and forth between Dan and Tom as the two of them get to know each other while playing on the others own weaknesses. While Tom is a bit too quick to criticise Dan's troubles with telling the truth about his sex life, Dan similarly has no problem in tearing apart Tom's own issues with his sexuality.

Through flashbacks and various conversations we learn that Tom had a wife who died and that he blames Dan and himself for her death. Throughout the movie, Tom does seem incapable of assuming any kind of personal responsibility, even going as far as to threaten to kill Dan  if the latter comes back with HIV.

As the movie winds down, both men do not come out the better for it. Dan finds out that he is actually HIV Positive and Tom seems to have gained no satisfaction in being proven right about Dan. Both James Marsden and Scott Speedman  are excellent throughout the movie. 

- The movie is based on a play by Tony Piccirillo who wrote and directed this adaptation.

- Sofia Vergara played the role of Dan's friend, Isabella. She only gets about two scenes in the whole movie.

- Standout music: Matthew Ryan provides the songs Sweetie, Nails and Trouble Doll while Tegan and Sara provide the song Don't Confess.

- Chronology: This movie came out in 2004 but it had a very late 1990s feel to it.

The 24th Day definitely is an intense power play of a movie with both Dan and Tom not being entirely sympathetic characters. They are believable and both Marsden and Speedman excel in their respective roles.

Rating: 8 out of 10