Let’s face it. Not everyone wants to be married. Writer-director Aaron Dougherty has given us the ultimate anti-romance in his thriller, The Best Day of Your Life.
Derrick (Alan Michael Dougherty) is thirty, single, and hopes it stays that way. It’s bad enough that he’s the best man at his best friend’s wedding and that his mother is breathing down his neck to get on with his life. Everyone around him tells Derrick to grow up, get a real job, and start a family. Frustrated to no end, he falls asleep and awakens in a nightmare. Our hero finds himself at church, and his married friends have turned into zombies. Now, next in line for the transformation, Derrick escapes only to be hunted down by the police.
I’m making a huge assumption here, but I’m guessing that filmmaker Dougherty really doesn’t want to get married. The Best Day of Your Life is what he imagines the spiritual prison that matrimony is to be like. The film opens by showing how marriage will suck the life out of a man. The rest of the film presents wedlock as the hell that all must enter at gunpoint. Derrick is hunted down and made to endure a sermon espousing the truth of marital bliss at gunpoint.
“…finds himself at church, and his married friends have turned into zombies.”
The film’s message is very one-sided. Speaking as someone who’s been married for over twenty years, getting married was the best decision I ever made…<blink><blink>…
Whether you agree with the premise or not, The Best Day of Your Life is pure catharsis for Dougherty about the pressure his protagonist feels to tie the knot. Said pressure is only compounded by the poor examples of marriage the lead witnessed throughout his life, starting with his parents.
Yes, the production values, sound, and editing scream micro-budget production. The cast is young and inexperienced. Yet, I enjoyed this for what it is — a cinematic essay about the cons (no pros) of wedded bliss. The director had a story to tell and scraped together what budget and resources he could find to get it made.
What I appreciate most about Aaron Dougherty’s The Best Day of Your Life is his defiant message and courage to not waver an inch. Make no bones about it. Aaron Dougherty doesn’t want to get married, so get off his back!
For screening information, visit The Best Day of Your Life official website.
"…given us the ultimate anti-romance..."
