6/10 A movie about addiction in which a mother struggles to care for her drug addicted daughter who has burned her in the past, “Four Good Days” draws its strength from the powerhouse acting but falls short due to its familiarity. There is no denying the fantastic acting from the always reliable Glenn Close who never phones in a performance and delivers yet again here. It was also great seeing Mila Kunis back in a dramatic role since although she is known for her more common, comedic performances, when she does some serious dramatic acting, she displays real talent (see “Black Swan” for proof of that). As someone who doesn’t have much knowledge of the world of hard drugs and addicts, I can’t claim to be an expert on this subject matter but I can say that the movie feels very authentic, as if the proper research was done to display everything in a realistic manner. From the rehab stints to the withdrawls to junkies doing anything and everything to score to the teeth falling out, etc., the film makers seem to have done their due diligence in terms of making this an accurate portrayal of addiction. From a film making standpoint, basically all of the production elements like production design, costume design, score, cinematography, editing, direction, etc. all get their job done but don’t stand out in any way. The direction is rather vanilla which matches all of these other production elements. The biggest problem was that we have seen movies like this one before many times. Lots of films have tackled addiction and addicts and while this one is fine, it just doesn’t add anything to the mix that hasn’t been done before in other films. When you have films like “Requiem for a Dream” or “Trainspotting” out there, this feels pretty generic/standard in comparison. While those other drug related films are totally different than this one, they still blow this out of the water. In the end, this is a fine movie that gets the job done and has some strong emotional moments anchored by two talented leading ladies. It just isn’t memorable, displays average film making and is probably a one-time movie. “Four Good Days”, one slightly above average movie.
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