Metacritic Film

Day Zero

Starring Chris Klein, Jon Bernthal, Elijah Wood, Ginnifer Goodwin, Elisabeth Moss, Ally Sheedy, Sofia Vassilieva, and Zoe Lister Jones

MPAA RATING: R for language, sexual content, some violence and drug use

First Look Studios
Drama
92 minutes | Color
USA
Released In Theaters January 18, 2008

Day Zero is a timely political and personal story of three young men as the military draft is reinstated. Three best friends, George a successful lawyer, Dixon a tough-as-nails cab driver, and Feller 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. (First Look Studios)

WRITTEN BY
Robert Malkani

DIRECTED BY
Bryan Gunnar Cole

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

41 / 100

Critic Reviews

63	New York Daily News What's good about the idea is that it triggers the kind of debate we would be having over Iraq if there was a draft. What's bad about it is that the three main characters in Robert Malkani's script - anti-war lawyer George (Chris Klein), gung-ho cab driver Dixon (Jon Bernthal) and sissy novelist Aaron (Elijah Wood) - are not interesting, either as individuals or as three amigos.
50	TV Guide The actors -- especially Klein and Bernthal -- deliver startlingly powerful performances.
40	The New York Times Its view of the near future may be vaguely plausible and its performances persuasive, but its formulaic construction, internal inconsistencies and fuzzy ending undermine its integrity. It has nothing to say about the big issues -- manhood, war and friendship -- that hasn’t been explored with more depth and honesty in a hundred other movies.
38	New York Post A lukewarm film about what might happen to three New York City friends if the draft were reinstated, proves that even the most controversial of topics can be the basis for the dullest indie films.
30	Village Voice Ed Gonzalez With ludicrous gravity and a narrow-minded view of courage and conviction, the film's what-if scenario is presented as a reality check to every ostensibly unimaginative male who's come of age in the draftless years since Vietnam.

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