Days - B-
By Kage Alan

Claudio is an uptight and anal-retentive banker who goes through life living everything to a precise schedule. Part of that might be because he’s the oldest child and some of it may have to do with the fact that he’s HIV+. If he wants to live, he must take a specific kind of medication and a certain time of day, exercise, have regular checkups with the doctor and practice safe sex with his partner, Dario, which tends to be less than passionate. All of this combined with having to constantly check up on his sister and pay attention to their mother, life just isn’t the least bit fun.

Sometime during Claudio’s humdrum life, he meets a handsome young waiter named Andrea. Not only does Claudio start seeing Andrea behind Dario’s back, but they start having unsafe sex together. Andrea is aware that Claudio is HIV+, but doesn’t care. Why? He’s in love and feels that their time together, even in intimacy, should be natural. I don’t think he’s quite thought this out, but Claudio doesn’t help matters by agreeing to it either. It’s a buildup to tragedy as Dario finds out what’s going on and Claudio neglects his family, partner and medication.

If nothing else, “Days” opens up a lot of room for conversation. There will be those who question the moral implications involved, the foolishness of the characters, whether or not love really does conquer everything in the physical world no matter what the consequences in the physical world and also what amount of disclosure should be expected between two people starting to date. The film was painful to watch, but painful in a good way. Don’t expect something light on a Friday night. Be prepared to think.