28 Days skips breezily through the paces of the movie, almost as though it knows we’ve already seen this kind of thing before -- so why torture us with the lengthy withdrawal scenes and dreary group-therapy sessions? Instead, we get Sandra Bullock in a very self-assured star turn, showcased amidst the other recovering drug addicts and alcoholics at a pleasant woodsy treatment center.
THE STORY:
She plays a high-living Manhattanite whose embarrassing bender at the wedding of her sister culminates in a car accident. A month at a rehab clinic is the bouquet she catches. She duels with a counselor , flirts with a fellow patient, a pro baseball player, and comes to appreciate the struggles of the other recovering addicts and alcoholics. Just as we’d suspected she would.
Her old life is represented by a high-living, heavy-drinking boyfriend, played by Dominic West. West, a British actor, nearly brings too much subversive charm to the role; he’s good enough to present an attractive alternative to the rehab patients, with their incessant chanting and twelve-stepping. But the script makes sure he does something clumsy and harmful every now and again, just to make sure he doesn’t become too attractive.
In lieu of the trauma of Ray Milland in The Long Weekend or Michael Keaton in Clean and Sober, director Betty Thomas punctuates the story with her brand of comedy. In Between a Soap Opera Trial which is a hit in an easy target, but well received.
I Feel Strongly 28 .....Days is a reminder of why Bullock became a movie star in the first place: she moves confidently through the paces of this formula, adapt at the comedy and willing to explore the tougher pieces in the script. Grant also wrote the screenplay to Erin Brockovich, and the two films are oddly similar(But dunt expect to see similar Julia Roberts She Pulls the critics down by showing herself entirely different in here), in that they both stick to an almost mathematical formula and set up their leading ladies with meaty, flexible roles.... And if here is there in forthcoming films.
I aint’ watching the movies for sure as something sticky can be expected !. The difference is that Erin is transformed by one of the best directors around, and 28 Days is given an over dose!