28 Days (2000)

I’m guilty of saying bad things about Sandy. Things like, makes lame movies, bad actress, annoying. I liked Speed but didn’t love what seemed like the same shtick (a la Aniston) over and over. It took The Proposal for me to come around. Once this happened, I watched (at PIC’s urging) and enjoyed Practical Magic, rewatched Speed and saw 28 Days.

Before I nitpick, Sandy cannot help but be funny but she also has dramatic range.

28 Days is a drama that cannot make up its mind whether or not it’s a comedy. Drunk party girl Gwen (Sandra Bullock) ruins her sister’s Lily’s (Elizabeth Perkins) wedding. She must enter rehab or be imprisoned. She reluctantly goes to rehab and of course acts out, insistent she doesn’t have an addiction.

This rehab isn’t portrayed particularly well—it’s lax, naïve, no hold barred—drunks come and go for visits, drugs enter, no one is searched after leaving the grounds, people fall out of windows. Yet, there are some good parts. The flashback scenes showing Gwen and Lily’s childhood are hard to watch as is the wedding scene fiasco. I recoiled many times. Gerhardt (Alan Tudyk) another rehab client is hilarious. He brings comedic lightness as does Gwen’s roommate Andrea (Azura Skye) and her love of the Santa Cruz soap opera.

This isn’t a great movie, but I enjoyed it for Gwen’s turn as she starts to come out of her haze, reassess her relationship with alcoholic boyfriend Jasper (Dominic West) and begins rebuilding her relationship with Lily. It’s also got a fantastic cast: Viggo Mortenson, Steve Buscemi, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Reni Santoni (Poppie from Seinfeld), Diane Ladd and Margo Martindale.

Director: Betty Thomas

Country: USA

Genre: Dramedy

Run time: 102 minutes

Scale: 3