As I was watching "28 Days," I was wondering what the filmmakers were trying to do. Were they trying to make a serious comedy, or a comedic drama? Whichever choice you make, I say they failed.
Sandra Bullock stars as Gwen Cummings, a woman whose constant party lifestyle gets her assigned to a rehab center. She and her boyfriend Jasper (Dominic West) spend the weekend of her sister's wedding chasing one drink with another drink. After a lively dance, Gwen staggers into the wedding cake. In an effort to make amends, she commandeers the wedding limo, but winds up crashing into a house instead. In lieu of jail time, she gets sent to a rehab center.
Gwen hates being there. All she sees are people who get together, hold hands, and sing "Lean On Me." She makes no effort to confront her drinking problem. Only when the rehab director, Cornell Shaw (Steve Buscemi) threatens to send her to jail does she try to get her act together. She starts to attend group meetings and help with chores at the center. Another addict who's a baseball pitcher (Viggo Mortensen) takes a liking to Gwen. Still, Gwen does not take an important step and admit to mistakes she made while drinking that hurt others.
The film tries to hard to find and create laughs in situations where none exist. The scene where others in Gwen's group let her know what they think of her isn't confrontational enough. Gwen isn't supposed to be entirely likeable, but the film takes too long for Gwen to make any breakthrough. Flashback scenes of Gwen's childhood aren't as dramatic as they should be. For some reason, director Betty Thomas chose to put Gwen on a pedestal that no character was allowed to reach.
Bullock does a good job with the material, but it seems as though she was merely asked to reprise the light comedic roles she played in films like the first "Speed" movie and "While You Were Sleeping." The most compelling character in "28 Days" is Buscemi's Cornell. He understands himself well enough to realize every day is a struggle, and that this struggle cannot be faced alone. I'm sure "28 Days" would have been a better movie with Buscemi in the lead role. He could have given the film's humor the dark edge it needed. He was very good in a darkly comic role in "Fargo."
I would have kept some of the other characters in the movie and built a film around Cornell. I enjoyed the part where he reveals his shortcomings best, and wondered how hard it was for him to not yield to temptation. Other fine support is provided by Elizabeth Perkins as Gwen's sister, Lily, and Reni Santoni, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and Azura Skye as residents trying to deal with their addictions. The film was written by Susannah Grant, who wrote the hit movie "Erin Brockovich." Somehow, I doubt the finished result of "28 Days" was anywhere near Grant's vision of events. "Erin Brockovich" isn't Shakespeare, but at least it was good writing. This movie required a tone at least as serious as "Erin Brockovich," but failed to get it.
"28 Days" plays like a comedy when it should play more like a drama. Bullock knows drama, and she proved that in "A Time To Kill." Instead, she comes across as an actor sent to the wrong movie. It's time for her to demand something of more substance. Instead, she found work in a film that nearly lived up to its title.
The story of Gwen Cummings (Sandra Bullock), a successful New York writer living in the fast lane and everyone's favorite party girl - until she gets ...More at HotMovieSale.com
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