Line #9 Film/TwentyEightDays


1	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/28_days_film_poster_2000.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:310:[[{{Tagline}} The Life of the Party... before she got a life.]]]]
3
4	->''"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!"''
5	-->-- '''Gwen Cummings'''
6
7	''28 Days'' is a 2000 American {{dramedy}} film directed by Creator/BettyThomas and starring Creator/SandraBullock, with a supporting cast including Creator/ViggoMortensen, Creator/DominicWest, Creator/ElizabethPerkins, Creator/SteveBuscemi, Creator/AlanTudyk, and Creator/DianeLadd.
8
9	Gwen Cummings (Bullock) is a newspaper columnist who drinks. A lot. But she [[BlatantLies doesn't have a problem]] – she and her boyfriend Jasper (West) 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 older sister Lily's (Perkins) wedding. Completely drunk and high, Gwen and Jasper dance a little too roughly, knocking over the wedding cake. Insisting she will fix it, Gwen sheds her icing-covered bridesmaid's dress and hijacks the limousine to look for a replacement for the missing cake – only to wind up driving into a house.
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11	Gwen is sentenced to [[TitleDrop 28 days]] of hard rehab. Thus our story begins.
12
13	''Definitely'' not to be [[TitleConfusion confused]] with ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater''.
14
15	----
16	!!Tropes in this film.
17	* ActuallyIAmHim: Gwen initially thinks her counselor is another patient.
18	-->'''Cornell:''' You know, if your counselor catches you using you could get in big trouble.
19	-->'''Gwen:''' I don't plan on discussing it with him.
20	-->'''Cornell:''' Too late.
21	* TheAlcoholic:
22	** In fact the entire film mainly is about this trope. Gwen drinks so much that it is ruining her life; it damages her relationship with her sister, not to mention that it gets her arrested and sent to rehab, kicking off the plot.
23	** Gwen and Lily's mother also was an alcoholic, to the point that she died from it.
24	* AllForNothing: [[spoiler: 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.]]
25	* BigScrewedUpFamily: 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.
26	* BingeMontage: During the opening credits.
27	%%* ElevatorGoingDown: Oliver
28	* CarMeetsHouse: Gwen did a lot of crazy things that day, this was just the last on the list.
29	%%* CarryingACake: Gwen falls into it as it is carried.
30	* ChekhovsGag: [[spoiler: 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.]]
31	** [[spoiler: Also Andrea mentioning off-handedly that Falcon really is leaving ''Santa Cruz'' sets up TheStinger (see below)]]
32	%%* CloudCuckooLander: Gerhardt
33	* CrowdSong: They sing to people when they leave.
34	* ConvenientlyEmptyBuilding: 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.
35	* CoveredInGunge: Gwen is covered in icing after the cake incident.
36	* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: When young Gwen is told that her alcoholic mother has died.
37	-->'''Aunt Helen:''' You mother has passed on.
38	-->'''Young Gwen:''' That's okay. Just slap her real hard, and she'll wake up.
39	* DrunkenMontage: Opening credits again.
40	* DrunkenSong: Played with. As the rehab group comes home from their trust course, they sing a ''drinking song'' on the bus.
41	* FanserviceExtra: The first girl Oliver is seen with in an elevator isn't wearing pants. Or underwear.
42	* {{Flashback}}: To the wedding and to childhood
43	* FunnyForeigner: Creator/AlanTudyk as Gerhardt is played as essentially nothing but comic relief throughout the film... right up until [[MoodWhiplash he breaks your heart]] in the final scene.
44	* NailedToTheWagon: Its sort of the whole point of a rehab clinic.
45	* INeedAFreakingDrink: Gwen deals with this the first few days.
46	* NoMoreForMe: Gwen arrives at this at the bar with Jasper
47	* OffTheWagon: [[spoiler: Daniel and Andrea]]
48	* OlderThanTheyLook: Gwen asks if Andrea is 12. She says she's 17.
49	* PrecisionFStrike: 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?!"
50	* PrisonRape: Jasper reassures Gwen that rehab is a preferable alternative to prison.
51	-->'''Jasper:''' You never hear about anyone getting raped by a plunger in rehab.
52	-->'''Gwen:''' Well, no, you don't hear about it because they ''cover it up''.
53	* TheShortGuyWithGlasses: Daniel, the doctor.
54	%%* SelfHarm: [[spoiler: Andrea]].
55	* ShowWithinAShow: ''Santa Cruz'', and their play, ''Santa Booze''
56	* ShownTheirWork: A great deal of effort went into making sure the therapy was right.
57	* SoapOpera: In universe, ''Santa Cruz'' an {{Expy}} of ''Santa Barbara''
58	* TheStinger: [[spoiler: The actor who plays Falcon on the SoapOpera ShowWithinAShow ''Santa Cruz'' has arrived at the center for Rehab.]]
59	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The film isn't shy on how hard the rehab is and how many people lapse back to their addictions
60	** Andrea is a heroin addict and despite getting out of the rehab clinic [[spoiler: she goes back to using and overdoses, as many heroin addicts do]]
61	** Daniel happily leaves rehab, committed to being sober. . . and is back within days, having relapsed.
62	* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Pointed out by Cornell:
63	-->"Hey, listen. This isn't the last lousy day you're going to have here."
64	* TakeOurWordForIt: 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.
65	* TimeTitle: The length of the rehabilitation program the main character goes to.
66	* TitleConfusion: This movie, called ''28 Days'' came out in 2000. The {{zombie\|Apocalypse}} film ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'' 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 ''Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater''. ''28 Days'', however, is less well-known.
67	* TitleDrop: When it's mentioned how long Gwen's court-ordered treatment must last.
68	* VomitDiscretionShot: Gwen's first night in rehab.
69	* WackyCravings: Gum, ginger snaps, chocolate, cigarettes - anything to ease the withdrawal.
70	* WhatDidIDoLastNight: Gwen doesn't remember how her bra ended up charred the night before the wedding. (We, as the audience, do.)
71	* WhatHaveIBecome: Gwen begins to realize this after her fall, [[spoiler: when she tries to climb down to get the pills she threw out the window]].
72	* WorstWeddingEver: A particularly infamous one. The event that prompted Gwen to go to rehab all began as her being a one-woman wrecking crew at Lily's wedding. She showed up late to stand in as a bridesmaid, brought her fellow alcoholic boyfriend with her, gave a drunken speech that made it seem like her sister only married her newlywed husband for his money, fell onto the wedding cake while dancing with said boyfriend, ruining it, and after undressing from her gown and stealing the limo in order to buy a new cake, she crashes the car into a nearby house. Fortunately, Lily and her husband are still HappilyMarried in spite of their terrible day and she was eventually able to deliver a well-deserved TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Gwen in rehab.

Context Film / TwentyEightDays