Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

jimbo-53-186511 After a heavy session of alcohol and drugs the night before, hard-partying Gwen Cummings oversleeps the next morning and arrives late for her sister's wedding. Matters are made worse when Gwen continues drinking in the morning and ends up ruining her sister's wedding (by destroying the wedding cake - although she ruins the wedding in other ways as well). Determined to make amends, she steals a limo and heads off to get another wedding cake, but sadly, en route, she loses control of the car and crashes into a house. This results in Gwen being forced into rehab (in order to avoid jail) where she starts to re-evaluate her life....Before I begin with the negatives I will try and focus on some of the positives; for a start there is Sandra Bullock's performance. At times, as an actress, I have found her performances to be a tad annoying (although I usually forgive this as she's quite easy on the eye). But here she was actually very good (from the drunk party animal through the inevitable rehabilitation process). Dominic West also gives a larger than life performance and many of the scenes involving him are the ones that tend to stick in the mind. The scene where Gwen is trying to clean the toilets while hopping round on one leg was also quite amusing and I liked the scene where the patients recreated a scene from another patients favourite soap opera - it was funny and warm. However, outside of these things I'm struggling for anymore positives...What annoying me slightly about this film was how the majority of the patients were depicted and their progression within the facility; there seemed to be endless group therapy sessions with occasional solo interjections from the patients at random intervals, but these things never seemed to slot anywhere into the story and seemed to amount to very little. Aside from Gwen, no-one else really seemed to change much which for me meant that there was very little character/narrative progression. We also don't learn much about the majority of the patients (except for one who is a drug addict); I mean why are they in there? How long have they been in there? What progress have they made? You don't learn any of this and the result of all this is a rather shallow film that lacks any sort of realism. The lack of realism is further highlighted by the ex-patient at the end with the plant - I mean could you really imagine him being allowed to join the real world? Despite the fact that I found that scene amusing I think you'd have to be a bit naïve and simple to not see how phony it felt.There is quite a powerful scene involving one of the patients dying from a drug overdose, but aside from this scene I didn't feel that the film offered a particularly realistic insight into the treatment of rehab patients and felt that the director cut a lot of corners and substituted realism with a feel-good, safe and generally predictable narrative. It's watchable, but it's not a patch on some other mental institution films such as Dream Team or One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

juneebuggy Sandra Bullock is Gwen Cummings, a writer with a cute British boyfriend (Dominic West) who seems to be having a great time with life. Arriving late for her sisters wedding she proceeds to get exceptionally smashed, steal a limo and crash into a house while in her underwear and out searching for a cake to replace the one she destroyed. You get the feeling that this isn't a day that's too far out of the ordinary for her. Gwen gets herself a DUI and 28 days in court-ordered rehab or jail time.At first Gwen refuses to confirm to the rules of rehab, much less admit she might actually have a problem. Its only after she breaks her leg trying to escape and slows down enough to listen, participate in group and get to know some of the fellow patients that change occurs.Bullock is always an easy watch, and she does a great job here, helped along by an assortment of interesting fellow re-habbers including Viggo Mortensen, Steve Buscemi, Alan Tudyk and Margo Martindale.Despite the rehab facility coming across a bit like summer camp there is a serious and sad undertone here exposed in flashbacks to Gwen's chaotic childhood with her alcoholic mother - I really enjoyed that aspect but for the most part this is a comedy.I've seen this a few times over the years, its one of those movies that I find myself watching whenever I catch it on TV. 3/28/16

Gideon24 28 Days is a nearly forgotten, but incisive look at the disease of addiction and, more specifically, the rehabilitation process and what a roller coaster ride it can become.The film stars Sandra Bullock as Gwen, a party girl whose drinking and drugging at her sister's wedding climaxes with her crashing a stolen limo into a house, resulting in court-ordered rehab for our heroine and how her deep denial about the fact that she actually has a problem keeps her from taking the process seriously, especially when her boyfriend (Dominic West), who is still on the outside and still partying, doesn't acknowledge Gwen's problem either.This film will really hit home with those who have struggled with addiction. It perfectly captures the entire process of rehabilitation...where the addiction took the person, the descent to rock bottom, the initial denial of the problem and that moment of clarity when the alcoholic/addict realizes that they are powerless over drugs and alcohol and become willing to do whatever it takes to get better.This is one of Bullock's strongest performances, playing a gamut of emotions that result from her initial frustration with her situation, her recognition of herself in fellow addicts, and most importantly, the realization that she can't live the way she did and hang with the same people she hung with before if she wants to stay sober. Steve Buscemi offers one of his most likable characters as the head of the rehab center, whose relationship with Gwen gets off to a VERY shaky start. Reni Santoni, Diane Ladd, Mike O'Malley, Alan Tudyk, Azura Skye, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste are solid as the members of Gwen's therapy group as is Viggo Mortenson as a former baseball superstar who has a brief encounter with Gwen. Mortenson is part of one of the scene's saddest scenes as his character is recognized during a field trip by a child fan whose adult chaperon figures out Mortenson's situation. Elizabeth Perkins also scores as Gwen's sister, who has one powerful scene during a family therapy session.Suhsannah Grant's smart screenplay and Betty Thomas' stylish direction are the frosting on the cake here...a clever and entertaining comedy that broaches some uncomfortable subjects but is effectively stemmed in realism.

vitachiel The only real good thing about this movie is Sandra Bullock. As a whole the film suffers from a too easy-going approach: the characters are too one-dimensional, the humor is lame, the flashbacks are cheap and repetitive and the story is presented in a rather simplistic and unrealistic manner. A film like this should pay much more attention to character development. Here, all the players live out their assigned shallow personalities. I don't know why they casted Mortensen for the sports guy character, he just doesn't deliver. The British accomplish of Bullock is too smooth and we know next to nothing about the roommate who story-wise makes such a big impact. Steve Buscemi is forgettable.The movie is entertaining enough however and never too predictable. As said, Bullock shines; she is perfectly cast for the role of uninhibited party animal struggling to confront the world and its residents. What else? Elizabeth Perkins. Yeah...