SYNOPSIS: DAY ZERO stars Elijah Wood, Jon Bernthal, Chris Klein, and Ginnifer Goodwin. DAY ZERO is a timely political and personal story of three young men as the military draft is reinstated. Three best friends, George (Chris Klein) a successful lawyer, Dixon (Jon Bernthal) a tough-as-nails cab driver, and Feller (Elijah Wood) a writer with a host of insecurities, are drafted and given 30 days to report for duty. In that time they're forced to confront everything they believe about courage, duty, love, friendship and honor.

REVIEW: More than 13 films about the war on terror were released in 2007. With many of the films failing to get the audience'S attention. Day Zero a film directed by a well know television director Bryan Gunnar Cole and written by Robert Malkani, was originally scheduled to be released back in November 2007.  However,  with lack of interest in war movies even for bigger productions like "Lions for Lambs", "Rendition" and "The Kingdom" its release date was moved to January 18, 2008.

The film revolves around three good friends from New York; Dixon (Jon Bernthal) , Rifkin (Chris Klein) and Feller (Elijah Wood) who were drafted by the Army within 30 days to report. The story sounds interesting, but at the same time is complex.  In his script, Malkani fails completely to create a strong connection between any of the characters and the audience, providing zero emotion during the film. At times, it becomes irrelevant if they decide to report, if they are against the war or in favor.  Somehow the impression given is that of neutrality on the issue of the war focusing more on presenting the personal conflicts of the main characters and not the main plot, the draft.  That was the main challenge for this writer with this film, which as a result caused him to come short in presenting this story.  The cast was not a factor in this film since the script didn't offer much.  Elijah Wood and the rest of the cast did an acceptable performance.

Overall this film proves once more that making war movies that touch controversial issues is big challenge, especially if you want to be politically correct.   
 

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