28 Days (film)

Last updated
28 Days
28 Days Poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Betty Thomas
Written by Susannah Grant
Produced by Jenno Topping
Starring
Cinematography Declan Quinn
Edited by Peter Teschner
Music by Richard Gibbs
Production
companies
Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing
Release dates
  • April 6, 2000 (2000-04-06)(premiere)
  • April 14, 2000 (2000-04-14)(United States)
Running time
104 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$43 million [1]
Box office$62.2 million [1]

28 Days is a 2000 American comedy-drama film directed by Betty Thomas and written by Susannah Grant. Sandra Bullock stars as Gwen Cummings, a newspaper columnist obliged to enter rehabilitation for alcoholism. The film costars Viggo Mortensen, Dominic West, Elizabeth Perkins, Azura Skye, Steve Buscemi, and Diane Ladd.

Contents

Plot

Gwen Cummings is an alcoholic who spends her nights in a drunken haze with her boyfriend, Jasper. They arrive late and disheveled to her sister Lily's wedding, where Gwen knocks over the wedding cake and drunkenly steals a limousine, crashing into a house. Given a choice between jail time or 28 days in a rehab center, she chooses rehab.

Gwen is introduced to a variety of patients: hypersexual cocaine addict Oliver, former doctor Daniel, mother of two Roshanda, older addict Bobbi Jean, and Dutch immigrant Gerhardt, and is assigned as roommate to teenage heroin addict Andrea. Angry and resistant, Gwen refuses to take part in treatment or admit she is an alcoholic. Throughout this, Gwen struggles with flashbacks of her addict mother, who died of an overdose when Gwen and Lily were children.

On visiting day, Jasper slips Gwen a bottle of painkillers and they sneak off for an inebriated day together. Cornell, the facility’s director and a recovering addict himself prepares to kick Gwen out to serve her jail sentence, but she still denies that she has a problem. Storming back to her room, she takes one of her smuggled pills, but spits it out and tosses the bottle out of her third-story window. After spending the day suffering withdrawal symptoms alone, she climbs out of the window to retrieve the pills. She falls, severely sprains her ankle, and is rescued by Eddie, a new patient.

Finally convinced that she has a problem, Gwen asks Cornell for another chance and begins to participate in the recovery process. Jasper visits and proposes to Gwen with champagne, which she throws in the lake. Returning to her room, she stops Andrea from cutting herself, and grows closer to her and their fellow addicts, who warn that Jasper does not take her sobriety seriously. Gwen learns that Eddie is a professional baseball player, and they share an impulsive kiss but form a friendship instead. Discovering that he is a fan of Santa Cruz, Andrea’s favorite soap opera, Gwen and the group begin watching it together.

Lily attends a group therapy session, revealing that a drunken Gwen ruined her wedding with a humiliating speech, and leaves in disgust when Gwen dismisses Lily’s feelings. Andrea will soon be released, and Gwen arranges a farewell skit for the group to perform. Jasper shows up unannounced, and finds Gwen with Eddie; picking a fight, he insults them both and Eddie punches him, straining his friendship with Gwen. She discovers Andrea dead in their bathroom from an overdose and commits herself to restoring her relationship with her sister. They reconcile and Gwen leaves the facility after completing her course of treatment, but not before Eddie warns her that Jasper is dangerous to her sobriety.

Jasper offers to make amends, but Gwen realizes he is unwilling to change to support her recovery. Leaving him and their old party friends at a bar, she encounters a horse on the street and can lift its hoof on her second try, an activity she struggled with in rehab. She breaks up with Jasper and is later reunited with a sober Gerhardt at a floral shop. In a mid-credits scene, Eddie recognizes an actor from Santa Cruz who arrives as a new patient.

Cast

Production

The film was shot in North Carolina. [3] The YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, North Carolina, served as the Serenity Glen rehabilitation center. [4]

Reception

The film opened at number two at the United States box office making $10,310,672 in its opening weekend in 2,523 screens, behind Rules of Engagement , which was on its second consecutive week at the top spot. The film went on to make $37,035,515 in the U.S. The film made a total of $25,163,430 internationally, bringing its worldwide total to $62,198,945. [5]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 33% approval rating based on 86 reviews with an average rating of 4.9/10. The website's consensus states: "Even though 28 Days is tackling a difficult subject, it comes off light and superficial, and maybe even a little preachy." [6] On Metacritic it has a score of 46% based on reviews from 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [7] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+ " on the scale of A to F. [8]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave it a positive review and wrote: "Count this rehab a success." [9] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "Bullock brings a kind of ground-level vulnerability to 28 Days that doesn't make her into a victim but simply into one more suitable case for treatment." [10]

Stephen Holden of The New York Times said it "begins with such a flurry of promise that it comes as a sharp disappointment when this drug-rehab comedy skids out of control." [11] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called it "Too glib too often to make much of an impression any way you look at it." [12]

Music

Singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, who plays one of the center's patients, contributed four songs to the soundtrack.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandra Bullock</span> American actress and film producer (born 1964)

Sandra Annette Bullock is an American actress and film producer. She has received several awards and nominations, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. She was the world's highest-paid actress in 2010 and 2014, and was named one of Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Perkins</span> American actress (born 1960)

Elizabeth Perkins is an American actress. She is known for her roles in films including About Last Night (1986), From the Hip (1987), Big (1988), Enid Is Sleeping (1990), The Flintstones (1994), Moonlight and Valentino (1995), The Ring Two (2005) and Hop (2011). She is also well known for her role as Celia Hodes in the Showtime TV series Weeds, for which she received three Primetime Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesse James (television personality)</span> American entrepreneur, automotive mechanic and television personality (born 1969)

Jesse Gregory James is an American entrepreneur, automotive mechanic, and television personality. He is the founder of West Coast Choppers and former partner of Austin Speed Shop and current CEO of Jesse James Firearms Unlimited, both based in Austin, Texas. He was the focus of a show chronicling some of the custom motorcycle builds in his TV series Jesse James: Monster Garage, which ran a shortened single season in 2012 on the Discovery Channel before being canceled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Furlong</span> American actor (b. 1977)

Edward Walter Furlong is an American actor. He won Saturn and MTV Movie Awards for his breakthrough performance at age 13 as John Connor in James Cameron's 1991 science fiction action film Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which was followed by a mini-sequel, short attraction film T2-3D: Battle Across Time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Tudyk</span> American actor (born 1971)

Alan Wray Tudyk is an American actor. His film work includes roles in 28 Days (2000), A Knight's Tale (2001), Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), voice and motion capture for Sonny in I, Robot (2004), and 3:10 to Yuma (2007). He starred in the black comedy horror film Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010). Tudyk has also appeared in the films, Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), 42 (2013), Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) and Trumbo (2015). He has voiced characters in every Walt Disney Animation Studios film since 2012.

An intervention is an orchestrated attempt by one or many people – usually family and friends – to get someone to seek professional help with a substance use disorder or some kind of traumatic event or crisis, or other serious problem. Intervention can also refer to the act of using a similar technique within a therapy session.

Azura Dawn Storozynski, known professionally as Azura Skye, is an American actress who first gained recognition for her role as Jane on The WB television sitcom Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane. She also had a 2-episode role as Cassie Newton in the seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Ketcham</span> American pornographic actress

Jennifer "Jennie" Ketcham is an American writer, reality television personality, blogger, and artist. Before 2009, she worked as a pornographic film actress and director under the name Penny Flame. She later appeared on a number of television talk shows to discuss sex addiction, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Tyra Banks Show, The View, Entertainment Tonight, Extra and Lifechangers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amber Smith</span> Actress, model

Amber Smith is an American actress and former model.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kari Ann Peniche</span> American beauty pageant contestant

Kari Ann Peniche Williams is an American actress and entertainer from Fairview, Oregon. She has held the Miss Oregon Teen USA and Miss United States Teen titles. She was stripped of the latter title after appearing nude in the November 2004 issue of Playboy.

<i>Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew</i> American television series

Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, later called simply Rehab with Dr. Drew, is a reality television show that aired on the cable network VH1 in which many of the episodes chronicle a group of well-known people as they are treated for alcohol and drug addiction by Dr. Drew Pinsky and his staff at the Pasadena Recovery Center in Pasadena, California. The first five seasons of the series, on which Pinsky also serves as executive producer, cast celebrities struggling with addiction, with the first season premiering on January 10, 2008, and the fifth airing in 2011.

Celebrity Rehab Presents Sober House, or simply Sober House, is a VH1 reality television show. It was a spin-off of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, and premiered on January 15, 2009.

<i>The Blind Side</i> (film) 2009 film by John Lee Hancock

The Blind Side is a 2009 American sports drama film written and directed by John Lee Hancock. Based on the 2006 book of the same name by Michael Lewis, the film tells the story of Michael Oher, a football offensive lineman who overcame an impoverished upbringing to play in the National Football League (NFL) with the help of Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy. It stars Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne, Tim McGraw as Sean, and Quinton Aaron as Oher.

<i>Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew</i> American TV series or program

Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew is a VH1 reality television show that documents people being treated for sexual addiction by Dr. Drew Pinsky and his staff at the Pasadena Recovery Center in Pasadena, California. Premiering on November 1, 2009, Sex Rehab was a spin-off of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, in which Pinsky treats celebrities for substance abuse.

<i>Masikip sa Dibdib: The Boobita Rose Story</i> 2004 Filipino film

Masikip sa Dibdib is a 2004 Filipino satirical comedy film, directed by Joyce E. Bernal. The film was released to Philippine theaters on April 14, 2004. It stars Rufa Mae Quinto as the title character and in her second collaborative effort with Bernal since the 2001 film Booba. Quinto also served as producer together with Viva Films. The film was released on video under the title Masikip sa Dibdib: Ang Tunay na Buhay ni Boobita Rose.

<i>Hick</i> (film) 2011 film by Derick Martini

Hick is a 2011 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Derick Martini from a screenplay by Andrea Portes, based on Portes' 2007 novel of the same name. The film stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Eddie Redmayne, Rory Culkin, Juliette Lewis, Ray McKinnon, Anson Mount, Blake Lively, and Alec Baldwin. It follows Luli (Moretz), a 13-year-old Nebraskan girl who runs away from her neglectful parents and sets out for Las Vegas. Along the way, she meets a drifter (Redmayne) and a troubled young woman (Lively).

<i>Man on Fire</i> (1957 film) 1957 film by Ranald MacDougall

Man on Fire is a 1957 American drama film directed by Ranald MacDougall and starring Bing Crosby in a rare non-singing, unsympathetic role.

Love Lives On is a fact-based TV film that aired on ABC on April 1, 1985. It was directed by Larry Peerce and starred Mary Stuart Masterson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandra Bullock filmography</span>

Sandra Bullock is an American actress and producer who made her film debut with a minor role in J. Christian Ingvordsen's thriller Hangmen in 1987. She made her television debut in the television film Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (1989) and played the lead role in the short-lived sitcom Working Girl (1990) before making her breakthrough starring in Jan de Bont's action film Speed (1994). In 1995, Bullock founded her own production company, Fortis Films, and starred in the romantic comedy While You Were Sleeping. Her performance in the film earned her first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. In 1996, Bullock starred in the film adaptation of John Grisham's novel A Time to Kill. In 1998, Bullock starred in the romantic comedy Practical Magic, voiced Miriam in the DreamWorks animated film The Prince of Egypt, and executive produced her first film, Hope Floats.

<i>Mastizaade</i> 2016 film by Milap Zaveri

Mastizaade is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language adult comedy film, directed by Milap Milan Zaveri and produced by Pritish Nandy and Rangita Nandy. The film stars Sunny Leone in a dual role alongside Tushar Kapoor and Vir Das in lead roles with Shaad Randhawa, Suresh Menon, Vandita Shrivastava and Vivek Vaswani in supporting roles while Ritesh Deshmukh appeared in a cameo. The film was released worldwide on 29 January 2016.

References

  1. 1 2 "28 Days". Box Office Mojo . Archived from the original on 5 October 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-29.
  2. Saraiya, Sonia (July 7, 2014). "Alan Tudyk on never playing the same role twice—except that one time". The A.V. Club . Retrieved July 7, 2021. Confession: The same role I did in 28 Days, with Sandra Bullock—I did it in Transformers . His name was Dutch, but I said: He's the same guy. Not only does he kind of seem like the same guy—he's the absolute same guy.
  3. Hepola, Sarah (April 14, 2000). "Party Girl, Interrupted". Austin Chronicle . the film was shot while the leaves were turning in Asheville and Wilmington, North Carolina
  4. David Agnew (June 7, 2021). "Movies Set or Filmed in or Near the Smokies". TheHollywoodNews.com.
  5. "Box Office/business for 28 Days (2000)". imdb.com. Archived from the original on 14 July 2010. Retrieved July 10, 2010.
  6. "28 Days (2000)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media. Archived from the original on September 15, 2020. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  7. "28 Days". Metacritic .
  8. "28 DAYS (2000) B+". CinemaScore . Archived from the original on 2018-12-20.
  9. Travers, Peter (14 April 2000). "28 Days". Rolling Stone .
  10. Ebert, Roger (2000). "28 Days". Chicago Sun-Times .
  11. Stephen Holden (April 14, 2000). "'28 Days': Your Life's a Soggy Mess? Well, Thanks for Sharing". The New York Times .
  12. Kenneth Turan (14 April 2000). "A Comedy About Rehab? Not Really". Los Angeles Times .