Two Days

I really loved this movie. Just saw it today at the AFI Film Festival in Hollywood. It's very funny, sweet, and surprisingly emotional. Paul Rudd is excellent in the lead role and the supporting cast are quite good as well.

Because this film deals with the Los Angeles film scene, it probably wouldn't be very appealing to a mainstream audience. Also the subject matter is quite dark and a few people walked out of the screening. Ironically, the people who left did so just as the main character suggests that anyone watching his story (he's a frustrated actor making a documentary of his impending suicide) would probably be running for the aisles at this point because people don't like to think about dark subjects like this!

I won't reveal the ending, but it was quite suspenseful. If you like offbeat comedies and have any sort of appreciation for caricatures of Hollywood personalities, you would probably enjoy this film.

One of the hardest things to pull off is a comedy mixed with serious drama. This film does it well. The acting is superb and the story is engaging.

Most of the craziness revolves around the main character, who remains steadfast in his resolve to kill himself even as others plot to change his mind or refuse to take him seriously. The actress who plays his girl friend, Rachel, could be the next Halle Berry. Beautiful and talented. Some of the other actors are also deserving of bigger and better roles in the future.

This film just came out on DVD-- check it out.

In regard to the scene on the beach-- I think his intent is made clear by his statement about the credit cards.

I really enjoyed the cast of this film. Paul Rudd was really good. I usually see him as a funny guy, but he acted more dramatic in this film and he was pretty good. There was one scene towards the end that really got to me and I didn't know Paul Rudd could act like that. The film had an interesting story line. It is about a man who wants to kill himself and he has some of his friends video tape it like a documentary. The only problem with this film was that it seemed too boring at times. Like there was not much going on. Some of the characters personalities made up for it at points, but not all the time. Adam Scott was pretty funny as his character. His outfits were probably the best. So overall, it was a decent film. I just wanted to see more to it.

2 Days is a movie about the last few days of Paul's life. Paul, a struggling actor, has decided to commit suicide in two days and wants to film them in lieu of leaving a suicide note. Paul goes around to his friends and family and agent and says goodbye the best way he can. The film crew is made up of Paul's best friend, who wants the movie to be fixed and have some kind of climactic feel good meaning to the whole thing, the co-director, who really wants to document the reality without creating any false meaning to the whole deal, and then the sound guy, camera guy, and briefly a make-up girl. The film crew has there own problems throughout the movie, the director is a conniving ass, the sound guy likes the director's girlfriend, etc.

This movie is actually very good. The camera switches to let you know which parts the film crew films and which parts are parts of the actual movie by limiting the amount of screen that you see. The camera's all use a fuzzy grainy filter, but it seems like it belongs. The writing and pacing of the movie is perfect, it keeps it exciting and interesting even though he's only going day to day to people's houses and talking to them. The story, while made mostly depressing for a long time, as cynical dark humor, and a very good message to send throughout. The story of the film crew is also critical of film crews in general, from the people who are on them to the things they try to do to shape even nonfiction movies like documentaries.

Though there wasn't a whole lot bad about the movie, a few things deserve pointing out. First off, there is a few attempts at humor early in the film, which mostly dies out by the time the movie is about halfway through. I blame it mostly on the fact that the movie is about a guy who wants to commit suicide, there's a bit of a dark cloud hanging over the story that makes the funny parts more along the lines of frown and shake your head parts. Besides that, the grainy filter of the movie is still a little hard to get used to, and some of the lighting comes through the camera a bit too bright.

Characterization in this movie is done perfectly, both through writing and through acting. Paul Rudd does perfectly as Paul, it almost feels like a movie about himself. The sub-director is a likable character who wants to film honestly, but you want to ring his neck a bit for not trying to stop Paul more. The director, Paul's best friend, is a serious ass and you really want to kick his ass more than the guy who wants to commit suicide. The rest of the crew have distinct personality that mainly plays into humorous situations but still works and are all acted out brilliantly. This is a great cast.

Overall, the movie is great, I don't want to give away the ending. If you're looking for a good independent with great acting then this movie is quality stuff. If you're looking for Paul Rudd before 40-year old virgin, this is the stuff to get.

Final Score: 8/10

I won't say that this is an excellent movie...there are things that would have certainly made it better. I thought that some of the actual movie footage was distracting. There was so much footage of the documentary (and the documentary of the documentary) that I found the cuts back to actual movie distracting at times (yes, this was really a movie about a documentary and a documentary about that documentary).

That having been said, I thought there was a lot to like about the movie as well. The acting was very very good (Paul Rudd was especially good). It was also (I thought) a rather novel approach to the subject matter. Definitely worth watching.