28 DAYS

"The best part of this engaging and well observed screenplay is its ability to be amusing in the best possible way. We are neither given dollops of syrup nor taken for fools. A lively and life-like scenario takes us inside Gwen's personality, complete with its emotional baggage. The film never categorically states that her drunken mother was directly responsible for Gwen's drinking weakness, and we are never expected to make simple judgements. Indeed, we are not required - or invited - to make any judgements at all. Gwen is not a victim except of her own short sightedness. The film is not about drug abuse, yet it deals with the issues of recreational drug use in a most effective way. The end result of all these positive elements is that the film is accessible, entertaining, profound and humorous, human and bitter sweet all at once. We end up caring even about the supporting characters and we sense that while the resolution is positive, it's not simplistic and nobody lives happily ever after. It's a pleasure to see a studio film which doesn't shy away from complex issues yet retains its sense of humour - while respecting the audience's intelligence."
Andrew L. Urban

"Possibly the idea here was that Sandra Bullock playing an alcoholic would help her shake off her fluffy, lightweight screen image. In practice, it seems to have worked the other way round, so we get a fluffy lightweight movie about alcohol abuse. I can't say playing a drunk reveals any new sides to Bullock's persona - she seems just about as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as usual. At the start, we see her staggering around and behaving badly in cute, slapstick ways (e.g. falling into a wedding cake) but her essential sweetness largely cancels out her character's supposed brittle, bitchy traits. Once Gwen arrives at rehab, the film veers between 'inspirational' drama and broad comedy without being particularly effective as either. The tone is consistently light and brisk, so that a tragic plot twist near the end seems both unnecessarily heavy and too casually treated. While Gwen's alcoholism is explained in some notably pat and unconvincing flashbacks, much of our attention is diverted onto the varied group of supporting actors, who manage to keep things fairly lively. Alan Tudyk as the zany gay German guy has the worst of the forced humor, but Azura Skye, as a teenage soapie fan, is funny without resorting to total caricature. Viggo Mortensen plays roughly the same wooden hunk he did in A Walk On The Moon; as Gwen's raffish English boyfriend, Dominic West is a good deal more attractive, if only because he seems closer to an imaginable human being. As for Steve Buscemi, he certainly looks haggard enough to play an ex-alcoholic: no longer the hip star of the moment, he's entering the character actor's comfortable middle age. He may not have helped his career by appearing in this movie, but he still looks set to outlast Sandra Bullock."
Jake Wilson