"28 Days" (2000)

This film surprized the heck out of me. Between my assumptions that this would be a romantic-comedy (because I've seen S Bullock in so many) and the uber misleading DVD jacket, I didn't expect to see a film that was deep or unpredictable, memorable, innovative, REAL or even one that I would like. But it was all of that and I did like it. I appreciate Ms Bullocks acting there. In fact, I appreciate the work of all the actors involved, but more specifically her and Steve Buscemi beacuse I've seen them in other roles that make these performances stand apart more.

I liked how there were moments of very raw dialogue. I like how there wasn't always music in the background. (I liked the rehab facility! I thought it was good and not cliche - but the cliche I'd be talking about would be my understanding from films... which could all be either perfectly accurate or perfectly bogus so what do I know?) I liked how certain moments were set up to be very classical Hollywood but they didn't always follow through as such. I liked how people could be won over because they're people. (Just like real people!) I liked how, as an audience, we didn't have to feel stupid. I'm not decided yet on whether we were intruding. I love how.... I love how I don't even know what just happened. I mean the story made its way to me as if someone I knew was telling it. Not all great, not all funny where it should have been, not always interesting, not necessarily sensible, not ending when you'd expect or want... .just a real story about something important in someone else's life.

Do people know this film? Is it like a big deal.... a big hit for Sandra Bullock's career...Oscar-nominated...innovative/trail-blazing in Hollywood - because it resists Hollywood? What's it like? Did it slip silently into the night two weeks after arriving in theatres? I actually think I don't want to know. It's like a little secret between me and the director and/or writer. Speaking of which, I would LOVE to talk to the author. Oh, I haven't felt this way since high school Writer's Craft or even some of my university English courses.... Canadian Poetry (ENGL*3660). That was a good one.

Something ungraspable that I liked:
One side of the binary is Sandra Bullock, an accomplished actor from Arlington, VA and on the other side is Gwen Cummings, a newspaper columist from New York. Somehow this person in 28 Days wasn't all actor and wasn't all character and that kind of hybrid drives me crazy. I think it's great to settle in the void between a binary. It's like... being something other than purple or not-purple... it's great.

8.2/10