DVD 24th Day (RC 1)

THE 24TH DAY is quite simply one of the finest achievements in American film making in the past year. Based on his play of the same name, writer and director Tony Piccirillo establishes his credentials as one of our more potent and important talents with the release of this exceptional 'first feature'. Not only is the script one of the best pieces of writing around, the acting of here-to-for underused pretty boys James Marsden and Scott Speedman is of the quality for which awards were invented.

After opening credits (which only in retrospect tell the entire story in beautifully executed photography), the story begins in a singles bar and moves slowly to the musty, dark, cluttered apartment of Tom (Scott Speedman from 'Underworld', 'Duets', etc) where it becomes clear that his 'guest' Dan (James Marsden of 'The Notebook' and the 'X Men' series - a 31 year old actor who lost out on the lead role in 'Primal Fear' to Edward Norton!) has been cruising Tom with the intention of a sexual tryst for the evening. With graceful, subtle dialogue we are seduced into the verbal foreplay of the apparent tryst until BANG! - Tom informs Dan that they had an evening of sex five years ago (Dan was drunk and doesn't remember) and since that has been Tom's only gay sexual liaison: Tom has been stalking Dan in revenge for his transmitting HIV to Tom, a transmission which has resulted in Tom's wife falling victim to AIDS and dying in a car crash 24 days ago!

Tom therefore becomes the captor and Dan the captive in this two-person drama. Dan is tied and gagged and Tom withdraws a syringe of Dan's blood, which he then takes to have tested for HIV. If Dan is HIV positive, Tom will kill him: if Dan is negative he will be free to go. The entire story takes place in this grungy apartment as a dialogue between Tom the avenger and Dan the victim who declares his seronegativity and opens the multipronged discussion of such topics as truth ('THE truth or YOUR truth" they each spar), AIDS, gay vs. bisexual vs. straight, sex without love or commitment, etc.

The relationship between captor and captive goes through many permutations, each more startling and frightening than the last until the story reaches its almost unbearably surprise climax. In the end the audience is left to resolve the final issues presented - a trait of a truly fine playwright. The messages and the impact of this movie are some of the more powerful on film.

We can only hope to see much more of the gifted Tony Piccirillo's work, both as a brilliant writer and as a tautly sensitive director. The real surprise (in a film full of professional surprises) is the caliber of acting from James Marsden and Scott Speedman. The are both startlingly fine: each actor creates his character so fully that our identification with each man's plight plays like a ping pong game with every soliloquy. There is an underlying animal sexual attraction between the two, even as the initial ploy of an evening of anonymous sex turns bitterly sour, and this interplay makes the story's end all the more poignant. These two fine actors each deliver the quality of performance that deserves Oscar attention.