28 jours en sursis

Eleven years after this movie hit the screen, I just viewed it. After seeing pages of reviews, no one will read this, but I will add my 2 cents anyway. I dislike drug rehabilitation movies, abuse movies, and similar themes, but this one captured my interest during each scene. I watched it in the morning while finishing last night's left-over gin that was diluted with water from melted ice from the previous night. I saw myself.

The reason I dislike rehabilitation movies is that I feel like I'm watching someone else's problems, and I don't like entertainment based on someone else's pain. For those who like this type of entertainment, it is excellent. For those who need a life-changing event, it may serve that purpose too.

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.

Sandra Bullock gives an outstanding performance in this story about alcohol and drug rehabilitation. Unfortunately, the presentation of the story was lacking and it detracted from the film's overall effect. Director Betty Thomas and writer Suzannah Grant (who scored with the screenplay of "Erin Brockovich") can't seem to decide whether they want the film to be a zany comedy or a serious drama. They seem to have been aiming for a bittersweet comedy, but they missed the mark. They trivialized the good dramatic elements of the story with numerous inane scenes, many of which were more ridiculous than funny. The film also suffers from an excess of clichés, some overemphasized to the point of being stupid.. It is difficult to take much of the story seriously with all the foolishness that is continually erupting. The result of this miscalculation was that the film was hammered at the box office, with the gross ticket sales failing even to match production costs. That's a pity because a lot of people missed an excellent dramatic performance.

Sandra Bullock was a ray of sunshine that burst forth from this otherwise jumbled mess. Sandra simply out-acted and outclassed the entire cast and did a terrific job despite the `nutty institution' approach. This is something of a departure from her accustomed romantic comedy roles. She had a chance to flex her dramatic acting muscles here, portraying a very confused and distraught character. She went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows and handled the full range of emotions beautifully. It was one of the most complete dramatic performances I have seen from her to date.

I rated this film a 6/10 on the strength of Bullock's portrayal. Without her, it would have been about a 3/10. If the topic had been treated more seriously, with sensitivity to the nuances of drug rehabilitation rather than having a good laugh at their expense, it would have been far more powerful and effective.

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.

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.