Too hung over
In 28 Days, America's darling, Sandra Bullock, plays Gwen
Cummings, a top New York writer who attends the hottest parties
in town.
Gwen, along with her suave boyfriend Jasper
(Dominic West), is living what many perceive to be the high life.
Constantly surrounded by drugs and alcohol, Gwen has built up
quite a relationship with those substances and she is apparently
enjoying her life of indulgence.
It takes a court order to pull Gwen away from her `glamorous'
parties after she drives her sister's wedding limousine into a
house while trying to replace the wedding cake which she fell on
and squashed while under the influence.
She is sentenced to 28 days of rehabilitation in what seems
like a `chanting hell' called Serenity Glen. If she does not
complete these 28 days of rehab, she will face a two-month prison
sentence. So, rather than `downgrade' herself any further by
going to prison (after all, she is a member of high society) she
reluctantly opts for the ridiculous chants over the hissing of
the laundry steam presses.
d so the movie follows her melancholic journey of
self-discovery. In the rehab clinic, she is assigned to a group
including a homosexual German who cannot express his feelings and
an ex-doctor with a grudge against life. The patient with whom
Gwen forms the inevitable bond, however, is the loose cannon of
the group, suicidal teen Andrea. As the alcohol slowly drips from
her system, Gwen rediscovers the beauty of life while the
audience simultaneously yawns with the laziness of the script.
Despite some fleeting comic moments, 28 Days is at base an
unsatisfying and preachy movie focusing on the evils of alcohol.
BY DEREK COPLEY
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