28 Days
Directed by Betty Thomas; starring Sandra Bullock, Viggo Mortensen, Steve Buscemi, Azure Skye, Dominic West, Elizabeth Perkins, Reni Santoni, Alan Tudyk, and Diane Ladd
When my boyfriend came home to find me sprawled out on the sofa, quietly crying with an empty pint of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie frozen yogurt in my lap and Sandra Bullock on the television set,
he knew it was almost “that time of the month.” I’ll be the first person to admit that 28 Day is not a work of art; it’s barely a decent imitation. But when you’re bloated and crampy and forced by inertia to endure one hour and 43 minutes of Sandra Bullock’s perfect hair, it’s almost impossible to hold back the tears. Directed by Betty Thomas (The Brady Bunch Movie and Private Parts) Sandra Bullock stars as Gwen Cummings, a New York City newspaper reporter who likes to party. After one particularly wild night, which just happens to take place during her sister’s wedding and ends when Gwen drives a commandeered limousine into the neighbor’s front porch, the party girl is sent to a rehab in lieu of prison.
Needless to say, rehab is filled with a gaggle of quirky addicts. There’s Alan Tudyk, a gay man with a bad accent; Diane Ladd, the token maternal figure; Reni Santoni, the surly doctor with an unsightly scar; Viggo Mortense, a baseball player with a penchant for booze, babes and cocaine; and Gwen’s roommate Azure Skye, an insecure teenager who’s not only addicted to heroin, but bad soap operas as well. The cast also includes Elizabeth Perkins as Gwen’s conservative older sister, Dominic West as Gwen’s boyfriend and partner in crime, and Steve Buscemi as the sage and sympathetic counselor.
Before the opening credits commence you know exactly where the movie is going: after a protracted assimilation into the group of kooks, Bullock will dump her boyfriend, reunite with her sister and become a productive, and therefore slightly less entertaining, member of society.
Despite my PMS and the fact that I’ve never been to rehab, I remained fully aware that 28 Days has absolutely nothing to do with reality. For crying out loud, Sandra Bullock remains perky and pretty, even as she experiences withdrawal. Still, when she collapsed into her sister’s arms towards the end of the movie I found tears well up in my eyes. Like Gwen Cummings, I, too, have felt like a misfit – and how the hell does she get her hair so bouncy and shiny? – JS