Movie Review – 24th Day (2004)

Overall 3.5 / 5.0 (recommended if you like dark, suspenseful movies)
Gay Content 3.5 / 5.0
Gay Positivity 2.0 / 5.0

A surprisingly taut suspense movie. Tom (Scott Speedman) discovers he is HIV+ and believes it must have been Dan (James Marsden) that infected him. He kidnaps Dan and takes a sample of blood. If the test comes back positive, he promises dire consequences. The believable acting helped involve me in the story, and the editing cleverly interposed one of the subplots, although it was confusing until the back story comes together later in the movie. The dialogue reveals layers of conflicted emotions and uncertainties that humanize both characters. However, the film ends with more questions unanswered than not, which left me frustrated and unsatisfied. I must add, though, the final shot in the movie is a beautiful piece of cinematography.

Overall, an engaging but dark movie. As for its Gay Positivity, it’s borderline. Tom’s apparently conflicted or uncertain feelings about his own sexuality and his automatic assumption that Dan must have infected him bothered me – while both issues are in character and fit the framework of the movie, it still borders on stereotyping the gay man as a disease vector.

This movie enjoys a certain believability (although Tom tracing his diagnosis back to Dan, and then hunting Dan down, after FIVE years have passed stretches credulity a bit; I barely remember what I had for breakfast today). It is easy to believe that Tom would respond to his diagnosis (and the subplot with his wife) in this manner; and frankly promiscuity and STDs in the gay community are nothing new.

But we’ve seen plenty of promiscuity, STDs, and self-hating behavior in gay film. Those images haven’t been balanced out by alternative, positive images yet. Consequently, dark movies like this, although I can enjoy it on its own merits, still disturb me from that perspective.

(**MAJOR SPOILER – don’t read if you don’t want to know, and I mean REALLY, because “will Dan test positive?” is the major source of suspense in the movie**)

I was also disappointed in the final revelation, which also stereotypes the gay man as diseased.