Reviewed by John Carroll, http://moviepage.hypermart.net/
28 Days, starring Sandra Bullock, Viggo Mortensen, Dominic West, Diane Ladd, Elizabeth Perkings, Steve Buscemi, Alan Tudyk, Mike O'Malley, Azura Skye, Reni Santoni, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Margo Martindale. Directed by Betty Thomas. Written by Susannah Grant. 2000.
Reviewed by John Carroll.
Will Smith has always been known as Mr. July 4th. That is, until Wild Wild West failed to continue Smith's wild success on the Independence Weekend. An equal analogy of Smith's usual success is Sandra Bullock's success during the spring. Forces of Nature, although critically lambasted, managed to rake in $13.5 million and the top spot at the box office when it opened in March of 1999. And while 28 Days's $10 million plus opening is not too shabby, it once again shows that mediocre work does not fly far with audiences.
28 Days is one of those delightful movies that provides you with good, hearty laughs, only to disappoint when you finally realize the potential the film has missed out on at the end. The cast is a mixed bunch, with some succeeding and some not. Sandra Bullock, the star of the film, once again proves her drawing power with a great performance that is only limited by the script that confines her. The mix of humor and drama as director Betty Thomas examines a rehab clinic and its residents is both delightful and moving, but continually bogged down by an unnecessary love triangle. For some reason, the Hollywood elite seem to insist on romantic subplots, no matter what is happening in the main plot of the film. Hoosiers, my favorite sports film besides Rocky, was terrific - and would have been much better had the Gene Hackman-Barbara Hershey romance been eliminated. So much valuable time in 28 Days is wasted on developing a relationship that is not capable of being understood in the first place, let alone at the end of the film.
Sandra Bullock plays Gwen, a woman on the wild side who when asked of her drug of choice, responds, "Do I have to choose just one?" Gwen lives wildly, and ultimately pays the price when she arrives at her sister's wedding on some concoction that she cannot even decipher. Gwen winds up in a rehab clinic, and the comedy starts off strong. Susannah Grant, who wrote the script, is wittingly able to poke fun at the operations of a rehab clinic without demeaning the actual progress that these clinics set out to achieve. Jasper, Gwen's boyfriend, makes his visits throughout the film. At first, his appearances do not represent the eventual and boring romantic subplot, but rather, the problems that Gwen will have to confront after she completes her rehab. Jasper, played very sharply by Dominic West, is a great character to have played this role. That is, until Thomas directs his role to be that of choice rather than that of progress. Jasper slowly slips away from the problems that Gwen will face when she returns to the real world into a choice that Gwen will have to make, between Jasper and Eddie Boone (Viggo Mortenson). Boone turns out to be a major league pitcher, and this touch of celebritydome was tough to swallow, but 28 Days was strong enough at that point to have faith in this character choice. From this point on, 28 Days slowly rolls down hill.
Interlaced throughout 28 Days are raspy flashbacks to the childhood of Gwen and the problems that her mother encountered, which included drugs and alcohol, just like Gwen. The flashbacks are logical, but horribly explained. Thomas and Grant automatically assume that a mother's influence will be passed down to her offspring. Thomas never establishes why Gwen has such a tight bond with her mother. Logic, which 28 Days ignores at its most critical moments, would suggest that Gwen would be turned off to drugs and alcohol because of this horrible experience. Thomas never confronts this, however. But, Gwen could also be doomed for her mother's fate because of these experiences as well. While this turns out to be the outcome, Thomas never ventures into the reasons why. Therefore, all the audience is left with are raspy and jerky flashbacks to a childhood that never fully connects with Gwen's adulthood.
While 28 Days definitely has its problems, it nonetheless provides its fair share of entertainment. Bullock's charm gushes off of the screen, and when Thomas focuses on the humor and intricacies of each character, the audience is either laughing or moved, and the feeling is always justified.
Sandra Bullock may not have a huge hit with 28 Days, but she once again proves why she her contingency is continually growing. Her performance is top-notch, and if she gets a hold of a superior script, maybe she can progress from spring into Will Smith territory...But only time will tell, but she will definitely need more than 28 Days.
Final Verdict: C+
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