28 Days (2000)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Betty Thomas

Writer (WGA):

Susannah Grant (written by)

Release Date:

14 April 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The Life of the Party... before she got a life.

Plot:

A big-city newspaper columnist is forced to enter a drug and alcohol rehab center after stealing a limousine and crashing it into a house.

Plot Keywords:

Wedding | Car Accident | Drug Overdose | Life Crisis | Drug Rehabilitation

Cast

Sandra Bullock	...	Gwen Cummings
Viggo Mortensen	...	Eddie Boone
Dominic West	...	Jasper
Elizabeth Perkins	...	Lily Cummings
Azura Skye	...	Andrea
Steve Buscemi	...	Cornell Shaw
Alan Tudyk	...	Gerhardt
Mike O'Malley	...	Oliver (as Michael O'Malley)
Marianne Jean-Baptiste	...	Roshanda
Reni Santoni	...	Daniel
Diane Ladd	...	Bobbie Jean
Margo Martindale	...	Betty
Susan Krebs	...	Evelyn
Loudon Wainwright III	...	Guitar Guy
Katie Scharf	...	Young Gwen

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements involving substance abuse, language and some sensuality.

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:14A (Alberta) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:PG (British Columbia) | Malaysia:U | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:12 | USA:PG-13 (Certificate #36735) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Germany:12 | Iceland:L | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:M | Norway:11 | Peru:14 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | Philippines:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Asheville, North Carolina, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

A YMCA in North Carolina was used as the Serenity Glen rehab. The YMCA continued to operate during the shooting of the film.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Gwen and Eddie are sitting in front of the TV, the ginger snap box on her right flips over on its other side between shots.

Quotes:

Oliver: Well, it's not a very cool guy to bring you booze in rehab, huh?

Movie Connections:

Featured in "HBO First Look: 28 Days (#7.5)" (2000)

Soundtrack:

Carolina In The Morning

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

Sandra Bullock goes off the wagon in this mixed up high camp romp through the scarier suburbs of Serenityville.

It's entertaining, it's weepy, it's funny, but mostly it's very, very confused, unsure whether it's supposed to be played for laughs or as a straight drama. The outright comedy trivialises the hellish experience of rehab, and while it would have been kinder to laugh with the characters that appear, you end up feeling you're laughing at them. Problem is - the things that are happening to them aren't actually all that funny.

Bullock is cute and has her trademark grace and charm, but somehow she seems like a caricature of herself, lacking the grittiness and edge of a real alcoholic. Her dark is always sugar frosted and brightly lit, and never the pitch black of a real suicidal drinker.

Alan Tudyk is outstanding as Gerhardt the gay German, and gets some of the best lines. Steve Buscemi has just the right air of seen-it-all-before detachment as the counsellor, and Dominic West plays the seductive rogue boyfriend with real style and conviction. The rest of the cast does a good job of holding things together, including a quirky and effective cameo from Loudon Wainwright III.

But while the writing and directing remain strong, they're also oddly unfocussed, and this pulls the movie down. Extreme heart warming moments follow on from extreme self-abusive nastiness, follow on from extreme camp humour. You're left spinning your wheels, unsure which direction the movie is going.

Ironically, the best part of the DVD release is the cameo appearance by the soap opera Santa Cruz. In the film itself the soap plays a bit part, when it should have been given a starring role all of its own. The DVD has a full sequence of Santa Cruz, and it's side splitting - easily the funniest part of the whole package.

Overall then, this is not one of Bullock's best movies. Worth watching on DVD just for Santa Cruz, and for some of the funny set pieces. But otherwise the film limps awkwardly between comedy and drama. Trying so hard to both well means it doesn't really manage to do either.