28 Days

The life of the party... before she got a life.
"Yeah, I know I drink a lot, I know I do because I'm a writer and that's what I do, I drink. I'm not like those people out there, I can control myself! I can, if - that - if I wanted to, I could, if I wanted. I can! I can!"
—-Gwen Cummings

Gwen doesn't have a problem. She and her boyfriend Jasper just like to have a good time. One Saturday morning after a heavy night of drinking Gwen and Jasper arrive 45 minutes late for Gwen's sister's wedding. Completely drunk and high, Gwen and Jasper dance a little too roughly, knocking over the wedding cake. Gwen insists she will fix it, sheds her icing covered bridesmaid's dress, and hijacks the limousine in a search to replace the missing cake. She ends up driving into a house.

Gwen is sentenced to 28 days hard rehab. Thus our story begins.

28 Days is a Dramedy film starring Sandra Bullock and directed by Betty Thomas, released in 2000. It explores Gwen's struggles to understand and accept her problem, and also explores the other patients she is in rehab with.

Definitely not to be confused with 28 Days Later.

Tropes used in 28 Days include:
  • Actually, I Am Him: Gwen initially thinks her counselor is another patient. See You Are Too Late for details.
  • The Alcoholic: Gwen
  • All for Nothing: Andrea is set to go home. She's finished her rehab. Gwen and her friends put on a play and give her some kind words. Andrea dies of an overdose before even leaving the clinic.
  • Big Screwed-Up Family: Gwen and Lily's father left them when they were young. their mother was a raging alcoholic and probably died because of it. Gwen and Lily were raised by their Aunt. Lily managed to avoid the chemical dependency, but Gwen didn't.
  • Binge Montage: During the opening credits.
  • Elevator Going Down: Oliver
  • Car Meets House: Gwen did a lot of crazy things that day, this was just the last on the list.
  • Carrying a Cake: Gwen falls into it as it is carried.
  • Chekhov's Gag: When Daniel leaves, Oliver idly mentions there's a 3 in 10 chance they'll see him again. Daniel is back before Gwen's 28 days are up.
    • Also Andrea mentioning off-handedly that Falcon really is leaving Santa Cruz sets up The Stinger (see below)
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Gerhardt
  • Crowd Song: They sing to people when they leave.
  • Conveniently Empty Building: Evidently no one was hurt when Gwen crashed into the house, or we would have heard about it. Lampshaded when Cornell tells Gwen that the lawn jockey she ran over could have been a four-year-old.
  • Covered in Gunge: Gwen is covered in icing after the cake incident.
  • Dramatically Missing the Point: When young Gwen is told that her alcoholic mother has died.

Aunt Helen: You mother has passed on.
Young Gwen: That's okay. Just slap her real hard, and she'll wake up.

  • Drunken Montage: Opening credits again.
  • Drunken Song: Played with. As the rehab group comes home from their trust course, they sing a drinking song on the bus.
  • Fanservice Extra: The first girl Oliver is seen with in an elevator isn't wearing pants. Or underwear.
  • Flash Back: To the wedding and to childhood
  • Lady Drunk: Gwen
  • Nailed to the Wagon: Its sort of the whole point of a rehab clinic.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: Gwen deals with this the first few days.
  • No More for Me: Gwen arrives at this at the bar with Jasper
  • Off the Wagon: Daniel and Andrea
  • Older Than They Look: Gwen asks if Andrea is 12. She says she's 17.
  • Precision F-Strike: The writers had to deliberate over the best place for Sandra Bullock to use the F word, it being a PG-13 movie. In the end, they dropped "Fuck Mr. Rogers" and went with the more perfunctory scene in which Bullock's character defends herself in a group circle. "Would you please just BACK THE FUCK OFF?!"
  • Prison Rape: Jasper reassures Gwen that rehab is a preferable alternative to prison.

Jasper: You never hear about anyone getting raped by a plunger in rehab.
Gwen: Well, no, you don't hear about it because they cover it up.

"Hey, listen. This isn't the last lousy day you're going to have here."

  • Take Our Word for It: The back of the DVD case and blurbs say that Gwen is "a successful N.Y. Journalist", but we never see any proof of that, and it doesn't really come up.
  • Title Confusion: This movie, called 28 Days came out in 2000. The zombie film 28 Days Later came out in 2002. Two years is within a tight, but still reasonable time frame to produce a sequel, so some people did wonder if 28 Days Later was a sequel - until the trailers came out. 28 Days Later went on to become a big hit, spawning its own also-similarly-named sequel 28 Weeks Later. 28 Days, however, is less well known.
  • Title Drop: When it's mentioned how long Gwen's court-ordered treatment must last.
  • Wacky Cravings: Gum, ginger snaps, chocolate, cigarettes - anything to ease the withdrawal.
  • What Did I Do Last Night?: Gwen doesn't remember how her bra ended up charred the night before the wedding. (We, as the audience, do.)
  • What Have I Become?: Gwen begins to realize this after her fall, when she tries to climb down to get the pills she threw out the window.
  • You Are Too Late: Gwen asks someone she has just met if there's any way she can get contraband...

Cornell: You know, if your counselor catches you using you could get in big trouble.
Gwen: I don't plan on discussing it with him.
Cornell: Too late.
 

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