2 Days is a marginally engaging film burdened by indecision, confusion, a pointless gimmick and an ending that seems to take a lifetime to get through.
Paul Miller (Paul Rudd) is an out-of-work actor who decides to kill himself. For reasons that are never entirely clear, he decides to get some people to film a documentary about the last 2 days of his life before he commits suicide. That's pretty much it. The whole movie is pretty much just Paul interacting with the film crew, his few friends and some folks he runs into by chance. The character of Paul doesn't appear to have any point in what he's doing. The filmmakers don't appear to have any point in what they're doing. I don't know how much of this movie was scripted and how much was improved, but there's really no story here. It's just a bunch of unconnected events.
What saves 2 Days from being a total disaster is some fine acting. Paul Rudd effortlessly play a man who thinks he's better than his life, yet is still filled with self-loathing. He gives Paul Miller some real depth and dimension. As Miller's best friend Stu, Adam Scott manages to be both a selfish self-involved jerk as well as the most adult and responsible person in the story. Caroline Aaron and Graham Beckel play Miller's parents and they show how these people love their son but neither really sees him for who he is. Donal Logue and Mackenzie Astin play two other friends of Miller and serve as alter egos. Logue plays a man who is what Miller could become if he gave up his pretensions, while Astin is what Miller would be if he could live up to his pretensions. Almost all of the male characters, in fact, are interesting, funny and believable. None of the female characters, outside of Miller's mom, are worth a damn, but I don't think that's the fault of the actresses.
Those good performances largely go to waste because very little else in this film works. To start with, this story never comes close to deciding what it is about. Sometimes the movie is about a guy who's tired of life and wants to kill himself. Sometimes the movie is about a guy who says he wants to kill himself and then feels trapped by that silly pronouncement. Sometimes the movie is about the filmmaking process and Paul isn't even that important. Sometimes the movie is about the unfairness of the acting business. Sometimes the movie is about how people find their best selves during the worst times. Sometimes the movie is about a subplot involving Stu, his girlfriend and the sound guy on the documentary. Sometimes the movie is about Paul's ex-girlfriend. Because it's about so many different things, 2 Days is constantly brushing up against compelling and fascinating possibilities that get shoved aside as film's focus shifts yet again.
This indecision and confusion extends to the way the movie looks. It arbitrarily switches back and forth between "real video" footage and normal film. I kept trying to figure out if there was any reason why it went back and forth like that and there wasn't any. 2 Days could have completely been a pseudo-documentary or it could have dispensed with the "real video" stuff entirely and it wouldn't have made any difference at all. Maybe aimlessly melding the two visual styles seemed bold and new back in 2003, but there's no purpose to it other than the hollow one of seeming bold and new with actually being bold and new.
And then we get to the ending. Ye gods. After carelessly veering back and forth between black comedy and serious drama, the movie finishes itself off with a sappy, sentimental and neverending scene where I think we're supposed to assume something meaningful is unfolding. We have to assume that, because the filmmakers never bother to do anything meaningful. The film is basically people wandering around, followed by people wandering around and ending with people wandering around.
If you don't care about things like plot and don't worry about things like why the folks filming the last 2 days of a guy's life spend so little time actually filming him, if you can just appreciate good acting, you might find 2 Days worth about 87 minutes of your time. If you need more than that, you won't find it here.
Paul Miller (Paul Rudd) is an out-of-work actor who decides to kill himself. For reasons that are never entirely clear, he decides to get some people to film a documentary about the last 2 days of his life before he commits suicide. That's pretty much it. The whole movie is pretty much just Paul interacting with the film crew, his few friends and some folks he runs into by chance. The character of Paul doesn't appear to have any point in what he's doing. The filmmakers don't appear to have any point in what they're doing. I don't know how much of this movie was scripted and how much was improved, but there's really no story here. It's just a bunch of unconnected events.
What saves 2 Days from being a total disaster is some fine acting. Paul Rudd effortlessly play a man who thinks he's better than his life, yet is still filled with self-loathing. He gives Paul Miller some real depth and dimension. As Miller's best friend Stu, Adam Scott manages to be both a selfish self-involved jerk as well as the most adult and responsible person in the story. Caroline Aaron and Graham Beckel play Miller's parents and they show how these people love their son but neither really sees him for who he is. Donal Logue and Mackenzie Astin play two other friends of Miller and serve as alter egos. Logue plays a man who is what Miller could become if he gave up his pretensions, while Astin is what Miller would be if he could live up to his pretensions. Almost all of the male characters, in fact, are interesting, funny and believable. None of the female characters, outside of Miller's mom, are worth a damn, but I don't think that's the fault of the actresses.
Those good performances largely go to waste because very little else in this film works. To start with, this story never comes close to deciding what it is about. Sometimes the movie is about a guy who's tired of life and wants to kill himself. Sometimes the movie is about a guy who says he wants to kill himself and then feels trapped by that silly pronouncement. Sometimes the movie is about the filmmaking process and Paul isn't even that important. Sometimes the movie is about the unfairness of the acting business. Sometimes the movie is about how people find their best selves during the worst times. Sometimes the movie is about a subplot involving Stu, his girlfriend and the sound guy on the documentary. Sometimes the movie is about Paul's ex-girlfriend. Because it's about so many different things, 2 Days is constantly brushing up against compelling and fascinating possibilities that get shoved aside as film's focus shifts yet again.
This indecision and confusion extends to the way the movie looks. It arbitrarily switches back and forth between "real video" footage and normal film. I kept trying to figure out if there was any reason why it went back and forth like that and there wasn't any. 2 Days could have completely been a pseudo-documentary or it could have dispensed with the "real video" stuff entirely and it wouldn't have made any difference at all. Maybe aimlessly melding the two visual styles seemed bold and new back in 2003, but there's no purpose to it other than the hollow one of seeming bold and new with actually being bold and new.
And then we get to the ending. Ye gods. After carelessly veering back and forth between black comedy and serious drama, the movie finishes itself off with a sappy, sentimental and neverending scene where I think we're supposed to assume something meaningful is unfolding. We have to assume that, because the filmmakers never bother to do anything meaningful. The film is basically people wandering around, followed by people wandering around and ending with people wandering around.
If you don't care about things like plot and don't worry about things like why the folks filming the last 2 days of a guy's life spend so little time actually filming him, if you can just appreciate good acting, you might find 2 Days worth about 87 minutes of your time. If you need more than that, you won't find it here.