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Actors: Sandra Bullock, Steve Buscemi, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Diane Ladd, Margo Martindale, Viggo Mortensen, Elizabeth Perkins, Dominic West
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about 28 Days |
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Gwen Cumming's (Sandra Bullock) is high on life amongst other things, completely happy with her life of parties and mornings after she never expected she could be forced to give it all up. After an alcohol and drug induced disaster at her sister's wedding she's forced into rehab for the term of 28 days. Suddenly the consequences of ruining the cake and driving a limo into a house seem WAY too high.
Gwen arrives at rehab determined to ride through the 28 days and then continue her partying ways. What ensues is a comedic look at her will to defy authority at every point. Her addiction is fuelled by her British equally addicted boyfriend Jasper (Dominic West) who not only brings her alcohol and drugs but a ring which after evaluation brings uncertainty.
Uncertainty is pushed further by the arrival of Eddie Boone (Viggo Mortensen) a successful but complicated new patient. Gwen and Eddie form a bond, but their relationship remains confusing.
--Yani, Resident Scholar
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Gwen is an alcoholic writer who lives in Manhattan with her equally alcoholic, British boyfriend Jasper. Gwen consumes a massive amount of liquor at her sister's wedding and becomes extremely sauced. While Gwen and Jasper are dancing and staggering drunkenly, Jasper spins her into the wedding cake and destroys it. Gwen then takes it upon herself to steal the Bride and Groom's limo and go find a replacement cake. While speeding and weaving through town, she smashes right through someone's front porch and into their living room with the stolen Limo. Gwen is then given the choice of either a 28 day stay in a rehab or jail. She chooses rehab.
At first of course, Gwen is in denial of her problem and is just going through the motions of rehab to satisfy her sentence. Her boyfriend Jasper eggs on her addiction by smuggling pain killers to her on a visiting day. Gwen also somehow escapes from rehab to go partying and comes back completely drunk. It is at this time that she meets a baseball star in rehab for sex addiction and alcoholism. He carries her into the lobby at the same time that he is checking himself in. The next day, the director of the rehab, seeing no humor in this, tells her, she either straightens up or will go to jail.
Gwen's roomate is a 17 year old heroin junkie whom Gwen takes under her wing. Through this friendship, Gwen decides that this girl is too young to be destroying her life with addiction and drugs, and begins to step back and take a look at her own disasterous choices. She also develops somewhat of a romance with the handsome baseball star/addict.
Gwen eventually comes to term with her addictions and her dead mother's alcoholism (seen in flashbacks) and has to come to a decision about her romance with the alcoholic Jasper.
--Stephanie, Resident Scholar
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Sandra Bullock is great in this enjoyable but odd comedy about a young woman who decides to take her life in for a rehaul when she is sentenced to twenty-eight days in a rehab center after destroying her sister's wedding (and public property) while under the influence. Her stay at the clinic teaches her a few new things about herself she never knew, and thanks to Bullock's believable likeability (which has gotten so much sharper since the saccharine days of The Net and While You Were Sleeping), it's always interesting to learn along with her. Supporting cast is fantastic, most especially Elizabeth Perkins as Bullock's brokenhearted estranged sister and Viggo Mortensen as the hunky (and boy do I mean hunky) professional baseball player who checks himself into the clinic for his alcohol addiction. Betty Thomas' being the director of this story is probably what keeps it from being really good, but the script by Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich, Ever After) holds up despite the odds.
--Bil Antoniou, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of 28 Days |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- 1980's-1999
Inner struggle or disability
Yes
Druggie/Wino problems?
- alcohol
- drugs
Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Profession/status:
- writer
Age:
- 20's-30's
Hair color?
- brunette (Brown)
Hair type
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn straight
Body type
- (woman) skinny
Events of movie makes character more...
- caring
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Sense of humor?
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Hair color
- blonde
Hair style
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- (man) muscular
How much in movie?
- 60%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
Style
Any profanity?
- Some foul language
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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