Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 2000)
Bullock falls a week short with rehab drama ‘28 Days' By Samuel McKewon Senior editor Sandra Bullock, at the very least, deserves credit for trying. Never much of a dramatic actress, she strays about as far from the shore as she can go in “28 Days” as a boozy party girl tossed into rehabilitation. But even as a drunk, Bullock is talented enough to bury her label of likability, and maybe she wants it that way. But it certainly hurt this movie. The “Sandy” persona, both real and written into Susannah Grant’s script, keeps the character, Gwen, from exploring the dark comers of an addict’s world. We’ve been here before, and never has detox looked this sunny. Call it Rehab Lite. Actually, it’s called Serenity Glen, Gwen’s destination (Bullock) after a hard night on the sauce and a few hard falls at her sister’s (Elizabeth Perkins) wedding the next day, during which she smashes a lim ousine into a house. Faced with jail or getting clean, Gwen chooses rehab, figuring she can coast through and still keep her Vicodin addiction on the side. Not unpredictably, Grant (who wrote the far superior “Erin Brockovich”) and director Betty Thomas litter die Serenity scene with a usual cast of eccentrics - a young ■——1 ..... MB 25* Wings I Tap Beer at Happy Hour Prices ^ All Night Longl a Monday - Tuesday Nights M 6:30 pm to 11:30 pm j I 70th & A Street » 483-7855 r" m ' . —. "■ . __ Why is TIAA-CREF the #1 choice nationwide?' The TIAA-CREF Advantage. Year in and year out, employees at education and research institutions have turned to TIAA-CREF. And for good reasons: ■ Easy diversification among a range of expertly managed funds * Solid performance and exceptional personal service * Strong,commitment to low expenses **/ * Plus, a full range of flexible retirement income options With an excellent record of accomplishment for more than 80 years, TIAA-CREF has helped professors and staff at over 9,000 campuses across the country invest for— and enjoy—successful retirements. Choosing your retirement plan provider is simple. Go with the leader: TIAA-CREF. Proven Performance Low Expenses Highly Rated Quality Service Trusted Name — ' • i ' ; ' ' I \ gS^^^^^^^!3I»lS«ldKS3mJSIS»t!»>S<Sl^,SS»SS«3lS!S«5ttKi»lSa!2ta:oStSdSoSlnS3ilo!^ ' heroin addict (Azura Skye), a snobby Gerhardt (Alan Tudyk) and crack mother (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), among others - to fill out the scenery. Steve Buscemi plays it very straight as a counseling ex-addict who’s seen Gwen’s wisecracking type enough times to know she’ll eventually break down and accept treatment or die. She has few choices left. But “28 Days” would rather we not dwell on that reality, opting for goofiness and Bullock’s throwaway charm for comedy. There are a few nice touches, including the “M*A*S*H*”-style announcements constantly running through the hos pital. Baptiste, an Academy Award nominated actress hidden away in a small role, has a nice moment late in the movie. So many more don’t work. Gerhardt’s strange accent is milked for all its worth, and the Serenity Glen affirmation chant gets very old, very fast. The flat jokes trump some of Bullock’s finer acting moments, though it pales to any single moment from Winona Ryder or Angelina Jolie in “Girl, Interrupted.” Bullock can only go so far as an actress, never crossing the bridge into the fear and pain of addiction withdrawal. Then again, Gwen is afforded no truly destructive qualities. We see in flashbacks that it might have been all her mother’s fault. Later, sister admits her faults in a teary-eyed lakeside chat. Gwen’s boyfriend (Dominic West, in a super-thankless role) is convinced life is misery deadened by chemical substances 8 Days STARS: Sandra Bullock, Steve Buscemi, Viggo Mortensen DIRECTOR: Betty Thomas RATING: PG-13 (booze and some adult language) GRADE: C FIVE WORDS: Another middle-roader for Bullock. and seems bent on marrying her. Eventually, this subplot gets to its resolution, as does a budding romance between Gwen and a base ball player (Viggo Mortensen). Only once does the movie choose to remind us the hardships of rehab, and it plays out in the predictably tragic form, borrowing an ending from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” without doing the work to deserve it. strangely, at tne end ot bullock s 28 days, most of the patients who were there when she arrived are.. .still there. Did they opt for the 35-day treatment? It reveals Thomas’ juvenile, egocentric treatment of the subject. For Bullock, “28 Days” is anoth er ho-hum effort to add to a resume mostly vacant of quality movies. It’s been four years since “A Time to Kill,” and since then, a marginal character in that movie, Ashley Judd, has crafted a more lucrative career. That says less about Judd’s abili ty than Bullock’s lack thereof, whether in acting or judgment. A sunny screen disposition got her this far. But this bus line, as “28 Days” proved, goes no further. selling biscuits and gravy an over the Southland... dailyneb.com "x pxpn't Know tiut msout fUNNFP 9&RFNTM00P.w ■- * -:v . “I discovered that Planned Parenthood is more than birth control. They are com mitted to the whole family - sexuality edu cation for children and families; safer sex and abstinence information for teens; annual exams and cancer screening for women of all ages; sexually transmitted infection testing for men and women; and, of course, pregnancy testing, contracep tion, abortion services, and health infor mation. For more than 25 years Planned Parenthood of Lincoln has really cared about people. Trust Planned Parenthood.” P Planned Parenthood® of Lincoln Education & Administration • 441.3332 2246 “O” Street Clinic • 441.3300 3705 South Street Clinic • 441.3333 www.plannedparenthood.org • www.teenwire.com