28 Days (2000)

There comes a time in the career of every performer identified mainly with lightweight romantic comedy roles to take the plunge into more serious acting challenges – in the hopes that we will see beyond his or her pretty face and into the heart of the great actor that resides within. And strangely enough, many of these actors and actresses choose the same exact route to accomplish this feat – that of portraying a person heavily addicted to drugs and/or alcohol. This was the case with, for instance, Meg Ryan in `When a Man Loves a Woman' and Michael J. Fox in `Bright Lights, Big City' to name just a few. Now we have Sandra Bullock attempting to stretch her thespian muscles by portraying an alcoholic in `28 Days,' the tale of a young woman's experiences in a detox center located in a bucolic suburb of New York City.

One of the initial problems with such films is that casting such well-known faces in these parts automatically ends up conferring a bit too much glamour on the situation. And `28 Days' is no exception. It's hard to accept Bullock as a particularly credible person in this role. Still, the movie is generally watchable because it manages to make the people and the rituals at the center seem both utterly addled and emotionally endearing all at the same time. When Bullock – feisty, close-minded, smug in her sense of superiority - first arrives after being ordered to the center as a part of her probation, we are as appalled as she is by the touch-feely nature of what is going on there. If anything could keep one from becoming an addict, the threat of being sent to a place like this would just about do it. But then, as the various characters begin to open up and reveal themselves as true hurting individuals, we, like the Bullock character, begin to be won over. But even these people aren't given enough screen time to really grow into fully-rounded, complex characters in their own right.

The film never entirely breaks out of its TV-movie formula. We are treated to all the standard plot devices common to the genre: the inevitable overdose by one of the patients, romantic interludes with a professional baseball player, the clashes between the latter and Bullock's troublemaking boyfriend. One of the problems with glossy studies of addiction such as this one is that, more often than not, we are led to believe that the `cure' is a permanent one – not necessarily because the film shows us that (in fact, it makes a few nods in the direction of showing that it ISN'T always permanent) but because the two-hour time frame and the audience demand for a hopeful, upbeat ending inadvertently leave us with that impression. To be fair to the film, it doesn't tie up all the loose ends into a nice pretty package. We are given cause for hope, but the open-ended nature of the final scenes suggests properly that the struggle will go on.

`28 Days' is a film with its heart in the right place. In fact our own hearts go out to it, to Ms. Bullock, to all those involved in its making. We realize that it is difficult to make a film that, on the one hand, yearns to be an uncompromising study of a subject as gritty as this one, yet, on the other, feels the need to appeal to as wide a mass audience as possible. The result, unfortunately, is a film that is too lightweight to be taken seriously, too `entertaining' to be real.

Fmovies: I have watched this movie over and over again and it always makes me cry at the same parts. I won't give spoilers away but suffice to say it's not a typical Bullock romantic comedy or action flick. I guess it could be seen more as drama, or women's fiction? It has its funny moments, so it's not entirely drama. But it's not While You Were Sleeping or Speed either.

I think one thing that makes it different is that it isn't about Bullock's character finding love. Unless you consider it about her finding her own love of herself, or self-respect. Really, I think it's about her finding the strength to be on her own and to be who she is. It also involves letting go of the past.

The supporting characters were so much fun, and I really like the developing relationship between Gwen and her sister as well. It's all quite an all-star cast, in my opinion at least.

28 DAYS (2000) **1/2 Sandra Bullock, Viggo Mortensen, Dominic West, Diane Ladd, Elizabeth Perkins, Steve Buscemi, Alan Tudyk, Michael o' Malley, Azura Skye, Reni Santoini, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Margo Martindale, Loudan Wainwright III. (Dir: Betty Thomas)

Addiction is not funny nor is the suffering it inflicts upon the addict and their friends and family but then again all `taboo' subjects have been scrutinized in these politically correct times we live in and here Sandra Bullock, The Girl Next Door that her adoring public has embraced as America's Sweetheart, wades in hip deep into a difficult balancing act as alcoholic/drug abuser Gwen Cummings, in this comedy-drama with more hits than misses - the working title could have been `Party Girl, Interrupted.'

Gwen is a free-spirited New York City based writer who enjoys living it up with her equally party hearty beau Jasper (West) by drinking and binging into the wee hours even if it means nearly missing her older sister Lily's (Perkins) wedding the next day as they stumble to the proceedings nursing a severe hangover quickly remedied by more imbibing at the reception resulting in Gwen losing her balance on the dance floor upsetting the many tiered wedding cake. Undeterred by her scene-causing out-of-control ramifications, Gwen staggers to the newlyweds' limo and careens along a suburban area looking for a `cake shop' to replace the damaged goods only to have her smash the car into a nearby house.

Flash forward to her being sentenced to Serenity Glen, a rehabilitation clinic, the type that offers New Age-y touchie-feely bonding and chanting (`Together! Together! NOOOO Drugs!') and a no-nonsense counselor named Cornell (Buscemi in a nicely handled understated turn) who sees right through Gwen's anger and stubbornness as she attempts to disassociate herself from her chores, group therapy and sneaking pills in via Jasper. After a mishap involving Gwen falling from her window (after a weak attempt to rid herself from the pills), she limpingly begs Cornell for a chance to redeem herself. Her sarcasm slowly drifts away as she comes to grips with her co-dependency on booze and pharmaceuticals thanks largely to her depressed teenage roomie Andrea (Skye) and new patient, Eddie Boone (Mortensen), a baseball pitcher overcoming many addictions including casual sex.

The film works solely on the fresh-scrubbed sexy appeal of Bullock in her range from comic drunkeness (a la `Arthur') to her scary withdrawl and gumption to change her life for the better. The humor comes thankfully to her fellow in-house patients including a gay German dancer (Tudyk who comes across as Andy Dick in `Sprockets') and the parody of a soap opera (`Santa Cruz') that the entire group becomes.well addicted to. It's hard to believe that the subject of a chemically dependent person could be funny, but that isn't the point. The point is that it doesn't make light of the situation at all (including the all-too-forseeable overdose of one of the characters to underscore just how serious it is), but it succeeds on the `patients-running-the-asylum' scenario - sort of a cross-blend of `One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', `Clean and Sober' and `M*A*S*H' with its hysterically, deadpanned homage of loudspeaker announcements.

Director Betty Thomas (`The Brady Bunch Movie', `Private Parts') serves her story by Susannah Grant (`Erin Brockovich') as best she can with interesting camera angles to distor

28 Days fmovies. Sandra Bullock does a pretty good job of playing Gwen the drunken party girl who gets herself into trouble. She is not gung ho for a treatment center, but her other option is jail. Actually, I was not sure how she avoided jail at all, and 28 days seemed too short a time for all the hilarity, action and breakthroughs in this film, but other than these things, I was really impressed with Bullock and the ensemble acting - the balance of comedy and drama. The one actor I thought over-acted was in the character of Gwen's boyfriend. He was too much, and it was a relief to see him off the screen. Viggo Mortensen is endearing as the other guy for Gwen. I would like to have seen more of them together. I think people will love the soap opera gags and the send-up of drug/alcohol treatment centers, but will also get the serious nature of the interactions in the "chemistry" among all the characters in treatment in the film.

There is a a very important message at the heart of this Betty Thomas film: Self Control from Indulgent excesses. The problem: the film itself tipsily overindulges its themes by balancing good drama with over-acting and imbalanced doses of comedy.

In a sense, the film knew it was dealing with touchy subject matter when it highlighted the realities of rehab in NY, but why did it need to purposefully throw in the stereotypical comedic archetypes - the viking accented Alan Tursdysk, or O'Malley's strapdown one liners, or for that matter, the debonair English accented intelligent metro lover in Dom West? Perhaps it was in 2000, and you needed to sell films that way to appeal to their target audience of teenagers who did weed and drank too much, but the fact is, when you have Steve Buscemi, Sandra Bullock and Viggo Mortensen in a film you can afford to push the drama-reality envelope and go in that direction.

In fact, the film's best moments are when Thomas does this- in a series of flashbacks to let the audience get in sync and depth with Bullock's character. And, there are scenes where the comedy can be done appropriately and in concordance with the film's thematic content- such as the skit at the end for Azura Skye's character. Sadly, these good moves are coupled with some really tipsy flaws, including the ending where Mortensen's character meets the soap star. Bullock's character also undergoes way too quick a character change (for 28 days) if one was to really nitpick.

However, the themes in this film make this a film i would still recommend to youth and young people. Azura Skye's character's loneliness, depression and suicide are genuinely depicted, and the fragile and important message of hope and redemption amid the perfunctory nature of life in the rehab centre that are celebrated in the plot really help this film regain its footing. When Bullock's character realises that this (the pills and drugs) was not a way to live, and Mortensen addresses her insecurities of not being able to do a single thing right, the film touches significant depths and strikes the chords of viewers. My personal favourite was the scene were Lizzy Perkins' character acknowledges the flaws of hers and her sister's lives and establishes love and hope in reconciliation. You see, it is the film's ability to reach such levels that I know this film suffered from tipsily overindulging its themes-trying to tie in too much to everyone- from being a comedy to a drama.

There are a lot of good things about 28 Days, especially from Sandra Bullock and Betty Thomas (Director). Don't be fooled by the advertisers and trailers, this movie is a drama. There is a little comedy thrown in the mix to keep things light at times (after all, rehab is a depressing subject), but the balance is about 80/20% in favor of drama.

Sandra really shines. This movie is all hers and she proves that while bubbly and energetic may be her niche, she can also be gritty and subtle to great effect. She's always been a very solid and dependable actress, but she gets to dig deeper here. She could have played this role in so many ways that would have been easy and predictable, but luckily she gave just the right amount of weight to her character. It's certainly her best acting performance.

Betty Thomas also delivers another strong effort. The pacing and amount of scene time seem just right. There is very interesting camera work and flashback scenes that work very well. I guess the best thing to say is that she made a formula movie (girl bottoms out, girl resists rehab, girl comes to terms and embraces recovery) without boring us with the formula.

In short, the best thing about the movie is what it wasn't. It could have been so cliched (although there were a couple of unavoidable ones) and paint-by-numbers. Instead, it was more subtle rather than over the top.

There are good performances by all, especially Steven Buscemi who plays his small role straight and somber. This film has higher artistic/merit value than it does entertainment value (afterall, how entertaining can a movie about rehab be?). It's a solid 7.