Tragic circumstances lead to recalibration of words we can take for granted. Normally, we might think of a "good" day as one filled with friends, family, food, and fun. But families battered by the broken promises and crushing disappointments of substance abuse may find that for them a "good" day determined not by what it contains but by what it does not. In "Four Good Days," based on a true story, a young addict must not use drugs for four days to receive a promising treatment. "Good," for her and perhaps even more for her mother, means abstaining from drugs. The word "love" may not get re-calibrated for addiction, but it gets modified. We speak of "tough love." And so, when Molly (Mila Kunis), a strung-out addict who has been through rehab and relapsed more than a dozen times, shows up at her mother's house, instead of a warm welcome, she is turned away. Molly's mother Deb (Glenn Close) leans out of the door, her stillness in contrast to Molly's hopped-up shifts of tone. She has been lied to so much and stolen from so often she believes that it is best for Molly if those around her can impose firm boundaries. But Deb wants so badly to believe her. "Whenever I've decided to engage with her it's always been with my eyes open," she says. But hope always pushes to try again, even when experience has shown us it will only break our heart. To the searing pain of the addiction/self-loathing hamster wheel, where "life is a trigger" and it seems the only way to bear the pain and loss and shame of addiction is to keep getting high. Drugs ruin lifes, and relationships, the only thing to do is surround yourself with people that support you, and love you. Family is the only thing that means a goddamn, you'll learn that. You've always got a reason! But it's always someone's else's fault!? At some point in your life, you are going to have to take responsibility.
Review of Four Good Days
