28 Days
Directed by Betty Thomas
Starring : Sandra Bullock, Viggo Mortensen, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, et al.
(available on video)
*  1/2    (One and One Half Stars)

        I wondered to myself while watching this filth, "Should I really be enjoying this, should I really feel entertained by this, shouldn't I be taking this seriously?". The answer is clearly yes, yes and no. And those are just the wrong answers to arrive at. A film that is content to blame an addiction on the sins of the mother - never uncovering the gap Gwen (Bullock) would've had to bridge in order to become an addict (and once more, how shameless is a film that shows the childhood in flashbacks but just plum leaves out ages 10-29, you know, the ones where she became a damn addict). But to more deeply explain just how out of touch this film is with itself, it breaks a huge rule by almost always telling us rather than showing us the effects of drug & alcohol abuse. And beyond that, Gwen is so vividly painted as a deep, hard core addict yet she emerges twenty-eight days later, able to continue her life easily. We never feel, not once, that she could be tempted back into the world she inhabited for (as the film tells us) fifteen years. That just couldn't be unless this were a Hollywood film, the leading actress was the executive producer and, well, if it weren't meant to be bankable.

        Truth be told, Bullock does some acting in this film (sandwiched between projects in which she is or is in love with undercover agents - think of the subconscious flair exhibited by her choice in roles here). She brings a delightfully off key note to her usual cutesy gallivanting that brings her just far enough away from being Sandra Bullock to be grungy drug/alcohol freelancer Gwen - but just close enough to the cutesiness that we can't help but see an actress exorcising the demons of an admittedly ridiculous career. Turns out it is utterly wasted, as are turns by Viggo Mortensen and Steve Buscemi, particularly the latter who, combined with 'Animal Factory', has pulled off two memorable turns each with less than five minutes screen time. Makes you remember just how prolific an actor he is.

        Betty Thomas has no trouble creating an entertainment - as she did in 'The Brady Bunch Movie' and 'Private Parts', films I admire - but here, she's way off target. For subjects like rehabilitation and addiction, there should be no need to populate the film with scenery chewing flamboyants like the ?-accented homosexual who always seems to arrive with the most inappropriate of lines anytime the movie seems to be getting within a mile of being reverent or disquieting. By the time Gwen is discharged, the film seems to be built around how large the contrast between her quick fix-it job/ happy-go-lucky smile and how pathetic the other patients' reoccurring admittance to the clinic is. This is more than a little jolting. I was curious just how a director could allow this to happen and then I remembered - nobody wants to see an actress men fantasize about blow her big chance to get sober and made-up again. Then I breathed a sigh of relief that this abhorrence was over.

        One final note : Is there room for the existence of '28 Days' and 'Requiem for a Dream' in the same world? Certainly not. I hate to get bogged down in a pissing contest between an obviously flashy three act throwaway and a hard-hitting artistic anti addiction statement but I couldn't help but recall 'Requiem' while watching '28 Days'. I kept wondering when '28 Days' was going to grow some balls and step up to the plate and give a wider audience something they could take with them. As it is, all they're likely to remember is that Gwen was triumphant in the face of an alarming addiction that she probably overcame and who cares what else. In 'Requiem for a Dream', the characters clearly remain addicted at the end of the film. Lack of closure left all of them in my brain and I can't shake them. '28 Days' is Hollywood drama at its best, skirting the issue for a happy ending.

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