Drinking again

>> 28 Days attempts to shed some light on alcoholism

by MATTHEW HAYS

A role as a drunk would appear to be a welcome respite for an actor who's seen better days. Enter Sandra Bullock, whose turn in Speed had everyone predicting a future of platinum for this charming star.

But things haven't gone so well for her since, with lacklustre vehicles (Speed 2 and Hope Floats among them) abounding. In 28 Days, Betty Thomas's latest comedy, Bullock is given the opportunity to flesh out a role as a drunk in denial. The film's opening sequence is brutal: Bullock arrives at her sister's wedding, drunk and late, only to fall into the massive cake and then hijack the newlyweds' limousine and crash into a house. It's a clever hook, one which involves the audience fairly directly: as we laugh at Bullock's drunken antics, the humour is soon replaced with a sense of horror. It's clear Bullock has a severe problem, way beyond occasional bits of tipsiness (though this transition appears to have been lost on some of the premiere audience I sat through 28 Days with).

Though Bullock, who handles this role fairly well, doesn't seem to think she has a problem, the justice system sentences her to 28 days in a rural rehab centre. If she fails at any moment, she will be redirected into prison instead. At this early point, the film has some promise as a more-in-depth-than-usual studio-driven examination of addiction.

But depth is something the filmmakers shied away from. Instead, Bullock soon finds herself pursued by a gorgeous baseball player (the also-recovering Viggo Mortensen), ultimately caught between him and her current love (Dominic West), who remains outside of rehab. The film then wavers between two principal downfalls: the misguided need for schmaltz and cheap laffs. Particularly irritating is the inclusion of Alan Tudyk, who plays a gay German stripper (now there's an unmined demographic!), who struggles to overcome a cocaine habit and spurts various wacky one-liners, all in a Sprockets-esque German accent (oh, those Huns!).

28 Days makes for a fitting companion piece to Erin Brockovich. Take an important social issue and give it a pretty dumb treatment--handing more fodder to that old argument about never overestimating an audience's intelligence. It certainly isn't hurting Brockovich at the box office, and probably won't hurt this one.

28 Days opens Friday, April 14