"28 Days" is a good film that tells a good educational story. Gwen Cummings (Sandra Bullock) lives a fun outgoing life with her boyfriend Jasper (Dominic West). Living in the busy New York City, they are always jumping around from bar to bar and drinking at the club with friends. What makes this film so great, is that Gwen lives with a real problem of alcoholism and drug addiction. When she wakes up late for her sisters wedding, arrives drunk, and ruins the wedding cake, and other disasters unfolded, she was sentenced to 28 days in rehab, or prison. This film is not one you should let pass by because it truly does show an accurate picture of what dealing with alcoholism and drug addiction is like. The writers must have done extensive research to get an accurate portrayal of someone who struggles with both addictions. The film did a great job at showing what life is like for people in rehab centers, and touched upon real emotions that draw you into loving each character you meet. You will get a close up visual on the life of Gwen, and truly, and emotionally, connect to her character and the struggles she is going through. The friendships and bonds that Gwen forms in rehab will allow you to follow her path of rebuilding herself, and appreciate what "28 Days" is capturing. This movie allows you to learn that viewing people in a positive light can help bring out their positive personalities. It is obvious that Gwen and her sister Lily (Elizabeth Perkins) struggle to connect with one another. A line in the movie that was stated by Lily says "You make it impossible for anyone to love you." This is the best line to describe how the two sisters connect. What makes this scene so real is that Lily is strongly struggling to deal with her sisters addictions and no longer knows how to help.I would not let this movie sneak by you, as you can learn a lot about these two addictions. For a serious topic, this movie has some comedic parts that will have you laughing with the characters; But don't worry because if you are a movie crier then grab your box of tissues. You can learn a lot from Gwen and "28 Days", and I would recommend this movie to many people. For some, it may be an educational film, and others an eye opening experience for themselves.

This movie seems to have been made in a vacuum by people who have zero experience with the subject matter they are half-heartedly attempting to tackle. It seems if you were going to make a movie on the subject of rehab, alcoholism and addiction, you would at least consult with someone who had some experience with it. It is evident by scenes like her arrival at rehab and first lunch that the director and actors are working off of third hand knowledge of what it is really like. People that are experiencing a 30 day rehab do not look good, clean-cut and made up. It is a shame that a film like this saw the light of day. Movies such as this further perpetuate false stereotypes about addiction and recovery. It is a gut wrenching and emotional experience to go through and this film takes the gritty subject and transforms it into Shakespeare in love style rom com trash. It was a terrible movie.

I'm trying to figure out what people don't like about this movie. This is a really well done, reasonably accurate portrayal of an alcoholic that just needs to get set on the right recovery path and hopefully is one of the few who actually succeed. The acting and the cast are just plain great, the story is goodhearted, spiritual and honestly sends a really sensible and worthwhile message to the world. It's really clever and funny to boot. Sandra Bullock has made so many successful famous movies, maybe this one is just too nice, accurate and compassionate and got lost for lack of being sensational enough. I like several of the characters enough that I actually consider several of them iconic. They are so representative of people I have actually known it's almost scary. I LOVE this movie.

I saw this movie on a lazy Saturday morning. I like Sandra Bullock, and the subject matter sounded interesting. I thought maybe I'd see Sandra in a meaty dramatic role - an alcoholic hits rock bottom and rebuilds her life.Instead what I saw was worse than a Lifetime movie of the week about alcoholism and rehab. The potentially powerful storyline just lacked scenes or dialogue that carried any gravity. It seemed as though the beginning of the movie where Sandra's Gwen was a thoughtless, disgusting alcoholic with no consideration for others was supposed to be some kind of slapstick humor. Oh look, what a goofball! She stole a car, drove drunk, and crashed into a house. Whoopsie! Rehab was a mish mash of clichéd characters and stereotypical behavior. A couple of things I did appreciate during the rehab scenes were (1) Sandra's performance regarding the physical withdrawal from substances, (2) the scenes when Sandra flashes back to her childhood and her mother's alcoholism, and (3) the touching, well acted scene between Gwen and her sister Lily at rehab. Other than that, the other patients at rehab were caricatures of typical addicts and were so silly it was offensive at times. Sandra gives a nice performance. Steve Buscemi is always great and he gives some gravity to his brief role. Other than that, it's not that good and I can't recommend it.