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24 out of 32 people found the following comment useful :-
Accurate and smart; great performance by Sandra Bullock. *** out of ****., 4 May 2000

Author: Blake French (dlfspartan@aol.com) from USA

28 DAYS / (2000) ***

"28 Days" is one of the most accurate movies about alcoholism and drug addiction I can remember. The film does not glamorize or poke fun at its thematic content, but instead shimmers in truth depicting the problems in which a nowhere life can lead. Why would anyone want to see a movie about someone spending time in rehab, regardless of how well crafted it is? Because "28 Days" is an interesting, sometimes funny, and involving tale with empathetic, down to earth characters. Do not let this production pass by you without a watch.

The film's main character is named Gwen Cummings and is played by the talented Sandra Bullock. She lives a wild, crazy life with her boyfriend, Jasper (Dominic West). Gwen is an alcoholic and a drug addict, and does not get much support from her similar love interest. As the movie opens, the two get drunk at a club, come home, have sex, and put out a fire with wine. The next day, Gwen arrives late to her sister's wedding, only to destroy an expensive dessert and crash a limousine into a house.

The Gwen Cummings character is developed clearly and effectively. We learn about her lifestyle, recognize faults, and are shown a dark history through painfully real flashbacks. This is one of the things that make "28 Days" so involving. We discover elements about the character and notice inner changes as she learns of them herself. I really cared about this character.

Gwen is given a choice, she can serve jail time for her wrongdoing or can waive that and spend 28 days in a rehab clinic. She chooses rehab. The head counselor is Cornell (Steve Buscemi), who shows empathy but also coyness. Also present at his heath clinic is an assortment of characters who sing sappy melodies and share group love, including Daniel (Reni Santoni), with thick glasses and medical capabilities, Andrea (Azura Skye), Gwen's young roommate, and Eddie Boone (Viggo Mortensen), a famous baseball pitcher with a drinking problem.

Gwen's experiences in rehab seem truthful and accurate. Her withdrawals and agonies are realistic and knowledgeable. It is obvious the filmmakers and Sandra Bullock thoroughly researched the stresses and details of rehab.

Sandra Bullock performs with the right amount of immaturity and charisma. This wonderful actress is set free in this kind of heart filled role; she is best when the main character. Here, Gwen is free to tread the surface of the movie and still allows other characters to contribute to her defining.

About half way through, the movie losses its much needed focus on Gwen and drifts into detailing relationships, friendships, and other characters. While most of the events that take place surround Gwen, the movie was on the right track with its first half. "28 Days" is smart enough to recognize its blunder, however, and by the final scenes it regains the emotionally correct material and concludes with high standards.

The filmmakers are advertising it as a comedy, but only an isolation of sequences offer hilarity or slapstick. This movie teaches us lessons through its characters. And the lessons are well taught.

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19 out of 25 people found the following comment useful :-
Very solid movie; Bullock, Thomas deserve praise, 27 April 2000
Author: gator-35 from Florida

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.

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12 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Pretty good comedy for a serious subject., 1 April 2004

Author: pswitzertatum from Portland, Oregon, USA

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.

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12 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Party Girl, Interrupted, 27 April 2004
Author: george.schmidt (george.schmidt@hbo.com) from fairview, nj

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 distort the hyperreality of someone under the influence and able support including stand-up comic O'Malley (late of his short-lived eponymous sitcom) who harbors a not-so-secret crush on Bullock. Bullock does herself a service by starring in a tricky scenario by utilizing her natural acting style and stretching her chops both dramatically and comically.

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8 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Tipsily overindulges its themes, 2 March 2006

Author: stephen_thanabalan_fans from Australia

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.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Average Comedy/Drama, 23 December 2006

Author: mjw2305 from England

Sandra Bullock takes on a more serious role than usual in this light comedy drama set in rehab. Bullock's performance is OK, and the movie is reasonably entertaining, however I would hesitate to recommend this film too highly, even if you're a Sandra Bullock fan.

The problem I had with '28 Days' is in its failing to settle in a genre; it tries to be funny at the wrong times and this distracts from the seriousness of key moments in the film, where it should provoke an emotional response in the viewer.

Overall I generally enjoy Sandra Bullock movies, but I found '28 Days' fell a little flat, and failed to be either a good comedy or a good drama.

6/10

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9 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
slick but occasionally enjoyable flick, 28 May 2001
Author: Roland E. Zwick (magneteach@aol.com) from United States

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.

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10 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
"What's wrong with celebrating your sobriety by getting drunk?", 5 December 2000
Author: TxMike from Houston, Tx, USA, Earth

That quote in my summary is just one of several 'background' announcements running through the movie. This is a drama which has many fine comedic moments. Sandra Bullock plays the main character whose life is filled with booze and pills, and whose sister says at the wedding, "You make it impossible for anyone to love you." Drunk, and driving the limo to get a cake to replace the one she and her boyfriend wrecked, she wrecks into a house. The judge sentenced her to 28 days in jail, or 28 days in rehab.

Rehab is difficult, because of the sobriety. Steve Buscemi plays a straight role as her therapist. The strange agglomeration of characters in her therapy group are reminiscent of "One Flew Over". Viggo Mortensen is a major league pitcher who can't remember what he did last night. Any last night.

This is a good, tender film that addresses a big problem for many people - relying on booze and/or drugs and still believing they can live a normal life. It is by no means a perfect film, nor will it stand the test of time, but I found it very entertaining and meaningful, and rate it a solid "7" of 10.

The DVD picture and sound are fine, but in no way outstanding. The extras are primarily a "making of" HBO special, plus the actual soap opera "Santa Cruz" which was made especially for this film, and has a recurring presence in it.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
tries to walk the line between comedy and drama...and trips on it, 11 May 2000

Author: Sam_Gray from Auburn, AL

I suppose I'll lay out the positive aspects of the film first, for it does have a couple. First, and most surprising, is the fact that Sandra Bullock actually holds this film together. It is the first time she's produced a serious performance since, uh, ever. Even better is Steve Buscemi, who, unfortunately, doesn't have nearly big enough of a part. A final plus is the fact that the film's heart is in the right place, even if it is misguided.

Which leads me to the negative. 28 Days attempts to tackle an incredibly heavy topic, but only with limited success. Primarily, there is a single reason for this, and it is because the film tries to be both a comedy and a drama at once. Few films pull this feat off very well (and they are usually romantic comedies), and 28 Days isn't one of them.

For example, the film goes to great lengths to demonstrate just how bad off Bullock's character really is, but it doesn't stick with that direction. Within the first five minutes of the film, she's destroyed a house and ruined a wedding - and she doesn't seem to care. Unfortunately, this does little to foster audience sympathy for Bullock, but that's besides this particular point.

The way I see it, if the film really focused more on Bullock's dark side, it would be better. But, alas, the movie adds several one-sided stereotypes that apparently are supposed to bring comic relief; all of them are distracting and only serve to rob the film of any power it might conceivably have. There's the angry-screw-the-entire-world type, the soap-operas-are-the-key-to-happiness-teenage type, the celebrity-baseball-player-playboy type, and let's be sure not to forget the eccentric-foreign-accent-man type (I particularly hate him). In other words, I couldn't care less about any of them. In fact, the only character outside of Bullock's that is even remotely interesting is Steve Buscemi's counselor. However, Buscemi's character is introduced, given more background than any other character in the film including Bullock, then dropped by the wayside completely. In my opinion, 28 Days could have been much more interesting had it analyzed a relationship between Bullock and Buscemi, but, hey, what can you do?

A final complaint. Director Betty Thomas seems to have attended the Blair Witch Project school of directing because every time Bullock's character has a flashback (which is often - let me say that again - often), the camera shakes as if the cameraman were suddenly overtaken by some sort of seizure. This same technique occurs during the unreadable opening credits. I'm sure Thomas is trying to make some sort of statement on alcohol's effect on memory and motor function, but she's not telling me anything I don't know and IS making me noxious.

Still, overall, despite my numerous complaints, 28 Days is watchable, and this is, again, largely due to Bullock's performance. Nevertheless, though, you could walk out of this movie and decide you want a drink, and I don't think that's the effect the filmmakers were aiming for. 5/10

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6 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
This is Gracie Hart in rehab, 5 June 2007

Author: annmason1 from Bellingham, WA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Well, where to start? The most outstanding thing about Sandra Bullock's performance is the utter stupidity of casting her in such a role, and, oh yes, her lips. Poofy to the max.

The truth about addiction is that situations don't have to be contrived to underscore the problem. However, this flick opens with the whole ridiculous sequence about the wedding. The bridesmaid shows up late and drunk, falls in the cake, then is allowed to make the toast, for heaven's sake, then does the car bit...my question is how dumb is the sister?

The clichés in the movie are awful. The people in the group at the rehab center are cartoons. Bullock is a plastic spoon actress when she tries to do drama, but when in a piece that aspires to inspire, she is just plain offensive.

Why can't we rate such bombs with a zero?

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