Film:  Day Zero
Studio:    First Look International; Indalo Productions
Director:  Bryan Gunnar Cole
Principal Actors:  Elijah Wood, Jon Bernthal, Chris Klein
Release:  2007; On DVD released February 26, 2008
Film length: 92 minutes
Rating: R for language, sexual content, violence, some drug use 

4 Stars

Reviewer:  Deborah Ground Buckner

Day Zero uses a hypothetical reinstatement of the military draft in the United States to present a character-driven story of friendship, inner demons and tough decision-making.  The result is a film that will keep viewers talking and thinking for some time.

Three friends in New York all receive draft notices at the same time, with orders to report in 30 days.  Aaron Feller (Elijah Wood), is a sensitive, naive writer who has just published a first novel and is working on a second.  James Dixon is a tough-talking cab driver.  George Rifkin is a lawyer who has just made partner in his firm.  It requires a bit of a suspension of disbelief to accept the three close friends would all receive their notices on the same day.  There is also some question as to how these three very different men have become such close friends.  George and Dixon go back to high school, but it isn't clear how and when Aaron came to make this a trio.  But once overcoming those two small points, the story takes off quickly.

Aaron's reaction is one of fear, actually many fears, which he discusses with his long-time therapist (while she is working a crossword puzzle-one of the most brutally insensitive portrayals of a therapist ever seen).  He's never actually been in a fight.  What if the others don't like him?  Isn't it true the people no one likes are the first ones killed in a battle?  Dixon is ready to go, accepting that after 9/11 and Los Angeles (a reference to a fictional disaster that killed some 1500 people), it is time to fight for freedom.  George tells his wife Molly (Ginnifer Goodwin) "I had a very specific plan for us."  He immediately begins to look for loopholes:  Perhaps he could convince the draft board he is gay; or, maybe his father could wield influence in Washington and find a way out.

Things come to a head at a party hosted by George and Molly to celebrate Molly's fifth year as a cancer survivor.  Here, all the arguments for and against the war in Iraq are voiced, credibly and without apology.  "Killing is wrong, no matter who does it," one of Molly's women friends says.  Dixon challenges her, saying "You've never had to fight for anything."  He reminds her of 9/11 and Los Angeles, then adds, "but you were probably busy getting a pedicure at the time."  A fight erupts as George asks Dixon to leave, but it is a scene that isn't going to end a long-time friendship.

Aaron's therapist advises him to "wrap up your affairs" before the reporting date, and suggests he might make a top ten list of things he wants to do.  Some comic relief is supplied by the resulting list and Aaron's activities in fulfilling it, but there is also an air of pathos in seeing the things that are important to him.  At the same time, Dixon falls in love with a woman he met the day he received the draft notice.  Seeing his developing relationship and the strains on the established relationship between George and Molly in light of the looming draft date make for interesting comparison and contrast.

This is a compelling film, and one's viewpoint on the war in Iraq will not affect the perception of the film.  This is a story of people.  The three fine performances of Wood, Klein, and especially Bernthal and the ways in which their characters react and interact to their situation left me saying "Wow."