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Four weeks equals 28 Days. These 28 days however are to be spent at rehab, with one condition, clean up or spend time in jail. That is basically the sentence given to Sandra Bullock's (Forces of Nature) character, Gwen, in the Betty Thomas directed film 28 Days. Gwen is given this sentence because she has a drinking and drug problem that led her to ruin her sister's wedding and then proceed to steal a limo and crash it into a house while looking for a cake store. The entire story revolves around Gwen and how her drinking problem has caused all these other problems in her life. But it also looks back to show a leading cause of this problem, her very own mother. And though the film is about a serious subject matter, it keeps the audience entertained with lots of laughs at the expense of those in rehab. Many of those laughs come from Gerhardt (Alan Tudyk, Patch Adams) who plays a gay German in Gwen's rehab group. At one point he mentions the size of his schlong. I thought the cast did a terrific job on the film, including Steve Buscemi in a serious role instead of his usual odd ball characters that he has played in the past (the loser in Armageddon that starts shooting everything on the asteroid). Also Viggo Mortensen (A Perfect Murder) does a great job as Eddie Boone, the ballplayer in rehab that we hear so much about these days. Well back to the movie where we learn all about Gwen's life prior to rehab. We are shown how irresponsible her mother was and how her sister Lily (Elizabeth Perkins, Crazy in Alabama) was always the good girl who kept things together. You get to look at her party times with her boyfriend Jasper (Dominic West, Star Wars: Episode I) as well as when mom almost gets her two daughters killed. And while all of this is happening Gwen starts to open up and ask for help. Plus she befriends her rehab roommate Andrea (Azura Skye, Edtv) while starting to fall for the ballplayer Boone, and then growing distant from the party-all-day boyfriend. Though 28 Days touches on many serious issues, it does it in a comedic way that helps to soften the blow. The film also goes for the feel good story in the end, but I though they were then trying to do too much with the picture. Bottom line, 28 Days is very funny and you might even learn a little bit about rehab if you haven't been there before (I have not been there). So I give it a rating of eight couches on the scale of ten. See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya. Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:49:57 AM |