5 Star Day (DVD Review)

9 Feb, 2012 By: Ashley Ratcliff

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Breaking Glass
Drama
$24.99 DVD, $29.99 Blu-ray
Not rated.
Stars Cam Gigandet, Jena Malone.

The horoscope for Jake Gibson (Cam Gigandet), a skeptical, brazen Aquarius, on his birthday says that he’ll have a perfect, five-star day. It doesn’t take but a few minutes to prove that prediction wrong, as things go far south with his job, apartment, girlfriend and car.

Jake wonders, why do some people religiously read their horoscopes and think that the words written will come to pass? If astrology is true, then people born on the same day should experience the same fate, he says. Thus, he sets out on a mission to disprove astrology by tracking down other individuals who were born within minutes of him on Feb. 6, 1982, at a Chicago hospital.

First is Sarah Reynolds (Jena Malone), a guarded bartender with a 3-year-old daughter. She wears the emotional scars of a past relationship and is put off by Jake’s arrival. After much prodding, we learn that Sarah’s birthday was crappy, thanks to her druggy ex (Chris J. Johnson).

Yvette Montgomery (Brooklyn Sudano), a married mother of two and doctor at a Chicago center for troubled youth, also had a terrible birthday. And although he doesn’t come out and say it, we later discover that Atlantic City lounge singer Wes Henderson (Max Hartman) also had a dreadful day — perhaps the worst of all four.

What Jake learns along the way forever alters his life, for the better. And not just in the cliché sense of that statement. The journey that he undergoes truly is enlightening.

Gigandet commands attention and makes us willing participants in his harebrained quest. The supporting cast also makes 5 Star Day an enthralling film.

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