28 DAYS A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 2000 David N. Butterworth
** (out of ****)
In preparing for my review of "28 Days," Sandra Bullock's new melodrama, I gatecrashed an AA meeting at which a young woman, probably not much older than Bullock's character, spoke for thirty minutes about her struggle with alcoholism. What this woman had to say or, perhaps equally importantly, the way in which she told her story, was absolutely fascinating. It was like watching Spalding Gray doing his "Swimming to Cambodia" thing. She kept going for thirty minutes straight with barely a pause. Her monologue was loaded with humor, pathos, and poignancy. It was filled with harsh truths, anguish, pain and suffering, yet is was somehow delightful. It was the kind of speech I wish I could have captured on videotape to replay over and over again to savor every heartfelt moment, every aspiration, every moving detail. "28 Days" is not like this. It's a well-meaning film about what it's like to have a Bud with your daily Wheaties but it's strictly AA Lite. Bullock plays a party girl who, after taking out a lawn jockey and crashing a limo into someone's porch during her sister's wedding, is sentenced to 28 days of detox in a rehab clinic. Here she gets with the program with a bunch of thinly-written caricatures of drug and alcohol abusers, many of whom are played by miscast performers (including Steve Buscemi as her counselor and Viggo Mortensen as a pro-baseball player with a love for the soaps). Bullock's character spends more time trying the break the rules than trying to quit drinking and as a result her month-end turnabout seems hurried and implausible. There have been some fine movies about alcoholism ("The Lost Weekend") and there have been some not-so-fine movies about alcoholism ("Leaving Las Vegas"). "28 Days," alas, comes closer to the latter. Bullock is good, and her relationship with her sister--played by Elizabeth Perkins--is excellent, but "28 Days" is still about 26 days shy of sobriety.
-- David N. Butterworth dnb@dca.net
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