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Title: 28 Days (2000)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Sandra Bullock | ... | Gwen Cummings | |
| Viggo Mortensen | ... | Eddie Boone | |
| Dominic West | ... | Jasper | |
| Elizabeth Perkins | ... | Lily | |
| Azura Skye | ... | Andrea | |
| Steve Buscemi | ... | Cornell | |
| 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 | |
New York based writer Gwen Cummings knows that she drinks a lot but doesn't believe it's a problem, and if she decides that it is an issue that she could stop drinking on her own. She and her live-in boyfriend Jasper fuel each other's hyperactivity with this excessive alcohol consumption, "a normal life" is not in either's vocabulary. Between Gwen and her older straight-laced sister Lily, Gwen more closely resembles their larger than life mother, who was also an alcoholic and who died because of that when they were children. Lily believes that Gwen's addictions makes her a difficult if not impossible person to love. While Gwen is in a drunken stupor at Lily's wedding, Gwen causes one issue after another, ruining the day for Lily. Gwen is forced to examine her drinking with the culmination of bad events she caused at the wedding, leading to her being court ordered to enter into rehab or jail for twenty-eight days, which is only marginally more tolerable an idea to her than the ... Written by Huggo
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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.