Any Day

Any Day

The only reason I could recommend “Any Day” is because of Sean Bean’s acting. Unfortunately, he alone can’t save this film from being terrible in every other way. This is the kind of movie that starts with “I Shall Be Released” and gets more obvious from then on. And it becomes even worse when Rustam Branaman uses cheap tactics to evoke emotions.

Vian (Bean) is an ex-fighter who just got out of prison after serving a twelve-year sentence for killing a man while drunk at a party. He went sober behind bars and now wants to get his life back together outside them. So he asks his sister Bethley (Kate Walsh) if he can stay on her couch for a little while until things settle down again. She agrees, but not without some reservations (as anyone should have in this situation).

While working at Roland’s Pizza Joint, where he quickly becomes friends with Roland himself (Tom Arnold), Vian meets Jolene (Eva Longoria). She works at the local grocery store and they start going out together but he doesn’t tell her that he just got out of jail or anything about his past life there.

Instead he says that work has him busy all day as a chef in some high-end restaurant downtown so they can only meet up late at night after 11pm when both their shifts end. Then one day Roland comes over to Vian’s house and sees Bethley sitting on the couch by herself watching TV. They talk for a bit before Roland leaves, but not enough time passes between his exit and return.

Everybody acts like this is some huge betrayal or scandalous news event when really it was just lazy writing on the part of Branaman who needed something dramatic to happen in order to move his story along faster than any real-life issue would allow . But instead we get ham-fisted dialogue such as: -“You should never have trusted him with your sister!” “He’s never acted like he gives a damn about anything before now.” “If she finds out what he did to her brother, she’ll never forgive me.” And then all of sudden nobody cares anymore because they’re too busy cramming religion down our throats.

I don’t have a problem with faith or belief in higher powers; I do however take issue when it’s shoved at me through poorly written characters who have no business spouting off lines such as “God had grandma and grandpa die in a car crash” (which by the way is not even true according to Catholic teaching). Especially since we were given no indication prior that Jimmy was religious or even particularly spiritual for that matter. But hey, maybe Branaman thought it would be cute to throw in some random kid saying goofy stuff about black holes while simultaneously trying to beat up bullies on behalf of his new best friend.

At any rate, there are many things wrong with this film but two things stand out above all else: It’s manipulative and it’s stupid.

The troubles with the tone begin early. She appears cruel next to Vian, who is nice to everyone around him in a “aw shucks” way. Bethley berates him while he has a polite conversation with Jolene at their first meeting. Like many parts of “Any Day,” it feels like someone had an idea for a screenplay and then stopped developing it. Worst of all, Vian’s sobriety and non-violence must be tested by the structure of “Any Day.” So we sit around waiting for it.

And wait some more. Because Branaman couldn’t care less about these characters and it shows. Every person we meet is just set-up for the final act, which means that they do things and say things that don’t feel organic in the slightest. They are all devices for the movie’s “message,” which does a disservice to people hoping for faith-based films that are better than this one movies where religion is portrayed correctly as an essential part of real life rather than a fabricated mouthpiece. “Any Day” goes from being boring to manipulative, and I’m not sure which one is worse.

Also, there’s something really weird going on with the language of this film and its rating. It’s almost as if halfway through filming someone realized that they needed to get a PG in order to hit some faith-based audience that this movie needs to succeed with or something? So then they went back and dubbed the entire thing like it was being played on network TV instead of releasing it as is which is what you would expect them

to have done if.

Vian clearly says “sham” when the character actually says “shit” twice though out ‘ANY DAY.’ And people also say freak WAY more often than anyone ever does in real life during Any day but I digress because my point here isn’t even really about how strange this decision was but rather that it doesn’t seem like this was a project that had much of a plan before they started filming. Trust me. You don’t need this sham.

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