Four Good Days is a 2020 American drama film directed by Rodrigo Garcia. It is based on a Washington Post article titled "How's Amanda? A Story of Truth, Lies and an American Addiction".
Drug addict Molly Wheeler (Mila Kunis) comes knocking at the door of her mother, Deb (Glenn Close), claiming she wants to go through rehab and get her life straightened out. This is far from the first time Molly has done this, so Deb has good reasons to doubt her sincerity. Nonetheless, after debating with herself and her husband for a bit, she decides to support Molly.
Tropes:
- Addled Addict: Molly's decade-long addiction has left her jobless, practically homeless and without custody of her children.
- Amicable Exes: Molly gets on well enough with Sean, the father of her children.
- Bittersweet Ending: While Molly relapses and her plan to have Deb trick the doctor into helping her get the shot leads to her going into acute withdrawal and having to be taken to the emergency room, the Time Skip to four months later implies that Molly is actually on the road to recovery and seems to be putting her life back together.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Molly is warned that having any drugs in her system as she takes the opioid antagonist. Rather than going another four days after she relapses, she has Deb pee in the cup for her to get the shot anyway. She has a reaction while in the parking lot.
- Disappeared Dad: An inverted example, where Deb was the one who went missing in her daughter's life, but her first husband Dale was the 'disappeared' one in that Deb was unhappy and had to walk out for a while. But she's since been in the picture while Dale only appears in one scene.
- Dr. Feelgood: Molly's downward spiral started when she broke her knee in a water-skiing accident as a teenager and the doctors prescribed her an absurd amount of painkillers. She was never denied whenever she went back for more. At the end, when Deb takes Molly to the hospital because of acute withdrawal, she rants at the medical officials that they were the ones who put Molly in that state in the first place.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Deb can be seen more than once having a glass of something to deal with her stresses.
- Drugs Are Bad: At a friend's request, Molly speaks to a class of teenagers about her experiences so that they'll learn to stay clean.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: In the ending, when Molly seems to be doing better, her blonde hair has reverted to brown.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Molly was the foolish in her pairing, her sister Ashley was the responsible. Molly is an addict who's lost custody of her kids and been out of rehab fourteen times. Ashley is a together woman with a career and husband.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Deb discovers Molly had a child from another drug addict, to whom Molly lied that she would have an abortion. Molly instead carried the baby in what she describes as the most difficult thing she's had to do in her life and gave him up for adoption. She doesn't know his name and isn't allowed to contact him.
- Meaningful Name: The lead character's full name is Margaret, but Molly is a very appropriate nickname for an addict, seeing as Molly is also a nickname for ecstasy.
- Mood Whiplash: Molly plays video games with her son, and he immediately starts chanting "you suck" over and over at her. We see her with a seeming sad look on her face and the son himself worries he went too far, before Molly starts chanting "you suck" right back at him and playing along.
- Off the Wagon: Molly has attempted detox 14 times before the start of the film, always resulting in her falling back to her addiction to heroin and other things. Deb is understandably skeptical that the 15th attempt will stick.
- Parental Favoritism: Deb's concern for Molly's condition causes her to gloss over her other daughter, Ashley. Ashley notices this when Deb doesn't bother to ask how things are going with her, which Deb claims is because she doesn't need to worry about her well-adjusted daughter.
- Scary Teeth: Molly's teeth have gone horrific thanks to drug abuse, and one of the first parts of getting sober has Deb taking her for an operation to get new ones (which conveniently also spares Mila Kunis from having to wear the prosthetics in every scene).
- Second Love: Deb was unhappy with her first husband Dale, and is Happily Married to her second Chris.
- Subverted Suspicion Aesop: When out at breakfast with Ashley, Deb realises she didn't bring her wallet, and starts panicking that either Molly stole it or will take from it if she left it at home. She runs out of the place to go home and check, finding the wallet seemingly just misplaced, with Molly innocent. It turns out that Molly did indeed take from it and used the money to buy drugs.
