''The 24th Day'' is a 2004 American

psychological thriller Psychological thriller is a genre combining the thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting. In terms of context and co ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film written and directed by Tony Piccirillo (in his directorial debut), based on his play of the same name. The film stars

James Marsden James Paul Marsden (born September 18, 1973) is an American actor, singer, and former model. Marsden began his acting career guest starring in the television shows '' Saved by the Bell: The New Class'' (1993), '' Touched by an Angel'' (1995), ' ...

and

Scott Speedman Robert Scott Speedman (born September 1, 1975) is a British-Canadian actor. He is known for portraying Ben Covington in the coming-of-age drama television series '' Felicity'', Lycan–Vampire hybrid Michael Corvin in the gothic horror–actio ...

. It premiered at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

on May 6, 2004.

Plot

Tom (

) and Dan (

) meet in a bar and then proceed to Tom's apartment together. While there, Dan realizes that he had been in that same apartment before. Five years earlier, Dan and Tom had a

one night stand A one-night stand or one-night sex is a single sexual encounter in which there is an expectation that there shall be no further relations between the sexual participants. It draws its name from the common practice of a one-night stand, a single ...

there. According to Tom, that encounter with Dan was his first and only homosexual experience. Some years later, Tom's wife is found to be

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

positive. Despondent after receiving this diagnosis from her doctor, she drives through a red traffic light and is killed in an ensuing collision. Subsequent to these events, medical tests reveal that Tom is also HIV positive. Tom blames himself for passing HIV on to his wife and, in turn, he blames Dan for passing the virus on to him. Reasoning that Dan, ultimately, is to blame for his wife's death, Tom devises a plan to exact revenge. He holds Dan hostage, keeping him bound and gagged to a chair in his apartment. He draws blood from Dan in order to conduct a test to determine Dan's HIV status. If Dan's test results are positive for HIV, Tom vows to kill Dan. If the results are negative, Tom agrees to release Dan unharmed. In the end, Tom returns to the apartment and lets Dan go. As Dan is leaving, Tom asks him when he had last been tested. A few moments later, he reveals that Dan's test was, in fact, positive. He decided to let Dan go because he realized that his positive status was the result of his choices which he couldn't blame on anyone else. The screen fades with Dan standing in Tom's doorway in shock.

Cast

as Dan *

as Tom *

Sofía Vergara Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara (; born July 10, 1972) is a Colombian and American actress and model. She was the highest paid actress in American television from 2013 to 2020.

as Isabella * Barry Papick as Mr. Lerner * Charlie Corrado as Officer #1 * Jarvis W. George as Officer #2 * Scott Roman as The Bartender * Jeffrey Frost as Dan's Assistant * Jona Harvey as Marla * Thea Chaloner as Wife * Brian Campbell as Blondie * Zach The Dog as Lerner's Dog

Release

The film had its world premiere at the 3rd

on May 6, 2004. It was released in limited theaters in the United States on May 14, 2004, and on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

on August 31, 2004.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, ''The 24th Day'' holds an approval rating of 27% based on 15 reviews, with an average rating of 4.30/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 29/100 based on 6 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Robert Koehler of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote that "the movie is never more than a hesitantly filmed recording of the play".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:24th Day, The 2004 films 2004 directorial debut films 2004 drama films 2004 independent films 2004 LGBT-related films 2004 psychological thriller films 2004 thriller drama films 2000s English-language films 2000s psychological drama films American films based on plays American independent films American LGBT-related films American psychological drama films American psychological thriller films American thriller drama films Films scored by Kevin Manthei Films set in Philadelphia Films shot in Philadelphia Gay-related films HIV/AIDS in American films LGBT-related thriller drama films Male bisexuality in film 2000s American films