The Fantastic Fest program guide’s description for the film ‘The Day’, immediately introduces the film’s director, Doug Aarniokowski, as “Robert Rodriguez’s prodigiously talented protégé”. If there is anything I hate to hear before seeing a film or listening to an album, it’s this exact type of selling point. It almost implies that because a person has been sort of taken in as an apprentice for an artist, that they automatically acquire that person’s talent like some twisted art school Highlander. Phrases like that are used a lot in today’s market, and it’s use here caused me to enter the premiere of The Day with a tad bit of unfairly attributed animosity.
Aarniokowski’s film details a 24 hour span in the life of 5 sorry souls, who must strive to stay alive in the unrelentingly harsh conditions of the post-apocalyptic world in which this film takes place. As I mentioned earlier, I entered the film wanting to hate it. As the first two scenes played out, I tried to make harsh judgments on the acting, and shot choices, but by about 10 minutes in, I found that this was just something I couldn’t do. I began to like the actors, and in turn, began to like the movie as well. As a viewer and critic, I have an obligation to be true to the art I see and true to the people who read this, and up until then, I hadn’t been doing a very good job. However once I opened my eyes to the wonderful substance that lay at the heart of this film, it became a much more enjoyable experience.
When bringing this post-apocalyptic world to life, it was important to both Aarniokowski, and writer Luke Passmore, that the film not fall victim to the age old cliches that litter every film in this genre from Mad Max to The Road. They chose to put down the hockey pads and goggles, and to dress their characters in plain old dirty garments that would most likely be the fashion (if you will) of the time. Instead of going balls to the wall with some over the top stylized fight sequences, the crew instead went for a gritty rough and tumble feel that created a more realistic vision of the brutality of life and death struggles. There aren’t any slow motion shots, there aren’t any crazy acrobatics or any Michael Bay helicopter shots. The hits feel solid, the deaths plausible, and it absolutely works wonders for this film.
However there is one small cliche that this film fell victim too, and it really is one of the worst. At some point in post-production, the decision was made to go for that overplayed desaturated look that plagues almost every single one of these films as of late. We get it, the world as we know it is now harsh and unrelenting, and there is no color left in these people’s lives. Why is it that so many of these movies tend to take this type of approach? It was cool the first few times around, but am I now to just believe that there is some unknown property of an atomic explosion that is somehow able to remove all colors from the world except for blue? A little bit of color could really have spiced this film up a bit and hopefully this is something Aarniokowski fixes in his next venture.
Now some people may come out and attack the less than perfect acting in the film. We all know that Shannyn Sossamon, Dominic Monaghan, and the rest of the crew are fully capable of delivering heartfelt performances, but let’s be real for a second. This is not at all the kind of movie that requires such a thing; this isn’t On The Waterfront. Sure, at times the film takes on an amateurish quality, but that really is what makes it so great. I too initially tried to dwell on the minor faults of the film, until I reminded myself that these very same faults are what made me fall in love with the early movies of Director’s such as John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and Robert Rodriguez. Go back and watch The Fog, Big Trouble In Little China, or Assault on Precinct 13; the they too have their fair share of less than perfect elements, but when the push comes to shove those films are cemented genre classics. The Day is wonderful new step in what could be a very tantalizing career for Doug Aarniokowski, and I honestly can’t wait to see what he delivers to us next.
Rating [4/5]
As a brief side note, I would like to assure you that my Highlander reference in the beginning of the article was purely unintentional! It wasn’t until I went through to edit this article, that I came across the information that Aarniokowski had coincidentally directed the much maligned Highlander:Endgame. Silly right?
Just in case I’ve stirred your interest, I’ve included a link to the trailer below!
THE DAY (2011) Official HD Teaser Trailer from guy danella on Vimeo.
