Movie #2169 ........................."Four Good Days" (netflix dvd)

Movie #2169 "Four Good Days" (Netflix DVD)  We saw a movie at the Chicago film  fest with Ethan Hawke,  and at the showing  the director Rodriguez spoke to us.  We enjoyed that film, and I thought I would look up another film that he had directed, and saw that Netflix had this one, so I ordered it.  I'm glad I did.  I can't say it was fun to watch, but it really gives a very real look at a dysfunctional mother/daughter relationship, mostly due to daughter's drug addiction that has spanned many years ---the viewer picks it up when both have been struggling with this for several years --- in the opening, the mother (Glenn Close) hesitates to even answer the door, when her daughter, with barely any teeth left due to the drugs tries to desperately  have her mother take her in --- you get the impression this has happened again, and again, and again.  i.e. the mother has taken her in, the daughter has gone through some 15 detoxing sessions, and then she stays with the mom until something gives....either  the mother kicks her out  or the daughter flees.  This time after sleeping overnight in the cold on the mother's doorstep, she takes her in............again.  And you can tell this weighs heavily on her relationship with her husband, who is not the father to this girl (Mila Kunis).  And the rest of the movie deals with, what might be or might not be, the very last time mother will try to save her drug -addicted daughter..... The acting is solid, and it's a tragic story of destructive love --- that the ones whom you love and are loved by you, are those who can destroy your lives.  The film brings up questions like:  when do you quit?  When does parenting end or does it ever?  There's a brief scene where a young woman who obviously doesn't understand the world of addiction suggests to Kunis to just "stop doing it" --- oh, if it were that easy.  The film shows you that it isn't.  I'd give it a 4, an uncomfortable but important story to watch.

"FOUR GOOD DAYS"     netflix, dvd      R     1 hr and 40 mins

A mother helps her daughter work through four crucial days of recovery from substance abuse.

Director:  Rodrigo Garcia

Writers:  Eli Saslow, Rodrigo Garcia, Amanda Wendler

Actors:  Mila Kunis, Glenn Close