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The Draft as a means for supplying the armed forces
with manpower ended with the Vietnam War. DAY ZERO is a
thought provoking film that raises the question of how today's
youth would respond were the Draft reinstated as a result
of the ever-growing Iraq War. Writer Robert Malkani and
director Bryan Gunnar Cole respond to the question by creating
three characters, long time friends, but each with a different
response to the forced servitude in a wartime situation.
As with any film dealing with controversial subject matter
there are ideas presented that will disturb just about everyone
no matter their stance on compulsive servitude, and it is
that aspect that makes this film work so well in jolting
our thinking.***
The time is New York, now, and the media has just announced
the reinstatement of the Draft to cope with the drained
national volunteer army. Three friends receive their draft
notices simultaneously: successful lawyer George Rifkin
(Chris Klein) whose marriage to a cancer survivor wife Molly
(Ginnifer Goodwin) is part of the solid state of life he
resists changing; fantasy writer Aaron Feller (Elijah Wood)
who is in progress on a novel he must finish while his life
is otherwise rather on shaky ground, controlled by his loopy
therapist (Ally Sheedy); cab driver James Dixon (Jon Bernthal)
who has a past history of being a loner and attempting to
control violent behavior. The gamut runs from refusal to
even consider the draft (Rifkin) to being nonplussed by
the disruption to his psyche (Feller) to gung-ho ready to
fight Dixon. The three young men have thirty days to Day
Zero and in those thirty days each undergoes profound changes
and introspection and self-discovery that very keenly illustrates
the effect that such a governmental edict can have on today's
youth.***
This is ensemble acting that rivals that of any fine
film: there are no stars here, only actors portraying emotional
changes that are universal in nature. And for a first film
by director Cole it succeeds on most levels. In addition
to the work of the four main actors there are fine cameos
by young Sofia Vassilieva and by Elisabeth Moss. The film
is meant to raise questions, challenge our current complacency
and our views of the concept or war and military obligation.
That it is disturbing is part of the power of the work.***
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