The only thing that these two characters initially have in common is one fateful night of shared passion 5 years prior; A night that Dan can barely recall, but that Tom is unable to forget.

Convinced that Dan was not safe the night of their encounter and responsible for infecting him with HIV, Tom lures Dan back to his apartment where he ties him down and extracts a sample of his blood. His terms are relatively simple; if the sample comes back negative then Dan will be free to go, however if he’s HIV positive then Tom is going to kill him.

Going to the extreme of kidnapping someone as the only means of extracting a truthful response from them, may at first seem to boarder on the ridiculous; but as the situation unfolds it appears to be less and less ludicrous and more and more like the only option available.

Without an exorbitant budget or loads of special effects to fall back on, The 24th Day relies on the extraordinary performances of the actors and the brilliance of the writing to carry the audience through this story. (Now you tell me, how often does this happen in Hollywood?)

I won’t go into details about the interaction that these characters share and the strange compelling bond that develops between them during their forced time together, but sufficed to say that your eyes will be glued to the screen and your mind will be racing a mile a minute as you consider everything that you are witnessing.

There is absolutely no time wasted on screen. Every conversation, every moment, all have multiple overlapping meanings that film professors and students alike will relish in analyzing for years to come.

Now, if there has to be a downside to the film, the only thing that I could find is that you may not be feeling so great about yourself when you leave. Audience members, sexually active twenty-somethings in particular, will be forced to reexamine their behavior when it comes to random sex acts or alcohol induced encounters. (Not fun I know, but perhaps very necessary.)

Without being at all judgmental or preachy this movie really forces you to look inside and see what could potentially be the best or worst parts of yourself. Jimmy’s character, Dan, is eventually forced to admit that his choice of either being tested or not being tested has absolutely nothing to do with the other people he could potentially be putting at risk; his arrogant resolve is that it could NEVER happen to him so why bother? A clear reflection of either his fear to know the truth and just remain confident that he could never be sick or that even if he is sick he doesn’t care to whom he passes it.

When we sit back and reflect on our own sex lives and think, “wait there was that one ...