28 Days Stars Sandra Bullock as Alcoholic
Film Portrays Treatment for Alcoholism and Addiction
Jan 24, 2009
28 Days is a movie starring Sandra Bullock that was released in 2000. Bullock portrays a newspaper woman who is also a heavy drinking party girl by the name of Gwen Cummings. Like many alcoholics, Gwen does not see herself as having a problem. She sees herself as having fun hen she drinks to the point of drunkeness.
Sandra Bullock Portrays Gwen Cummings, an Alcoholic
Gwen is forced to confront her drinking problem when she ruins her sister’s wedding by falling on the wedding cake and then gets into a car accident. At court she is giving the choice between alcohol rehab or jail. Gwen chooses rehab as the lesser of two evils.
The majority of the action takes place in the peaceful countryside rehab facility; where Gwen eventually accepts that she has a problem, which is the first step toward recovery. The cast of fellow patients alternately tug at the heartstrings and provide comic relief.
As one of the patients is released and walks out the door the others watch and one says that she hopes he makes it and another replies that since only three out of ten patients reach recovery, their odds would be better if he didn’t .
In the course of treatment Gwen meets with her sister, who is still frothing with resentment about Gwen's behaviour at her wedding. In a later meeting the sisters come to a better understanding of each other. Gwen must also navigate her destructive relationship with her fiance and try get along with her unpredictable fellow patients.
28 Days About Alcoholism and Treatment
Alcohol treatment is a very complex issue and this film glosses over many of the ugly parts of real life addiction, although they do touch on the key points, such as the denial of a problem, the conflicts, resentments, low success rate of treatment and the problem of getting out of the controlled environment of a treatment facility and back into real life.
28 Days, while portraying alcohol treatment realistically, is a somewhat lighter treatment at the problem than grittier and darker films and more realistic films about alcohol addiction. Films with a darker, but still hopeful, message about alcholism include “My Name is Bill W” starring James Woods and “Clean and Sober” starring Michael Keaton. Perhaps the difference is that the characters in "My Name is Bill W" and "Clean and Sober" hit a much lower point in their addiction before going into treatment.
28 Days Cast
- Sandra Bullock as Gwen Cummings, the protagonist with drug and alcohol problems
- Azura Skye as Andrea Delaney, Gwen’s roommate and a 17 year old heroin addict
- Dominic West as Jasper, Gwen’s boyfriend who has the same alcohol addiction as Gwen
- Viggo Mortenson as Eddie Boone, a famous baseball player who is a fellow patient
- Elizabeth Perkins as Lily Cummings, Gwen’s older sister
- Alan Tudyk as Gerhardt, an emotional German patient
- Reni Santoni as Daniel a former doctor and patient
- Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Roshanda, a patient
- Diane Ladd as Bobbie Jean an elderly patient
- Mike O’Malley as Oliver a patient and sex addict
- Steve Buscemi as Cornell Shaw a counselor and former addict
- Margo Martindale as Betty the receptionist
- Susan Krebs as Evelyn the clinics psychologist
- Elijah Kelley as Darnell
- Betty Thomas Director
- Celia D. Costas Producer
- Susannah Grant Writer
28 Days was distributed by Columbia Pictures in 2000.
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