28 Days

We weren’t exactly thrilled when our mean, heartless editor dispatched us to a screening of Sandra Bullock’s bid for respectability (she plays an alcoholic—nightmares of Meg Ryan in When A Man Loves A Woman danced through our heads). But the surprising thing about 28 Days is that we found ourselves laughing and playing along, all the while wondering how such an obvious “chick flick” managed to suck us in. The answer probably lies in director Betty Thomas, who seems to have a knack for turning groan-worthy material into decent flicks (The Brady Bunch Movie), as well as some colorful acting that enlivens what could be bland stock characters.

Sandy plays Gwen Cummings, a part-time writer and full-time alky who gets trashed at her sister’s wedding, drives a limo into someone’s living room, and gets slapped into court-ordered rehab. Once there, she encounters the likes of Counselor Cornell (Steve Buscemi, looking and sounding like a man who’s been through hell), ex-baseball player Eddie (Viggo Mortensen), heroin addict Andrea (an elfin Azura Skye) and coke addict Gerhardt (Alan Tudyk, who we swear was created at Jim Henson’s Muppet workshop—think Beaker’s gay cousin). The rehab scenes don’t always manage to pull above weepy melodrama and touchy-feely niceness—especially during a grating impromptu “play” performed by the patients—but it creates a relatively believable world.

If you have to placate your girlfriend with a movie that doesn’t involve international terrorists or severed heads, you could do a lot worse. In fact, you might want to floor her completely and actually recommend it.