Four Good Days: A Raw Look at Addiction, Recovery, and Family Struggles

What Four Good Days Gets Right

1. The Relentless Grip of Addiction
   The movie does an excellent job portraying the relentless control addiction has over an individual’s life. Molly’s struggle to quit heroin isn’t glamorized or simplified. Mila Kunis’s physical transformation—her sunken face, disheveled hair, and trembling hands—shows the devastating toll heroin has taken on her body. Her desperation feels raw and real.

The film also highlights the psychological side of addiction. Molly’s cravings, mood swings, and manipulations reflect how addiction rewires the mind to prioritize the drug over everything else. Recovery is not simply about wanting to quit—it’s about fighting against a compulsion that feels as necessary as breathing.

2. The Emotional Toll on Families
   One of the most accurate aspects of the film is how it portrays the impact addiction has on families. Glenn Close gives a heart-wrenching performance as Deb, a mother caught between love and self-preservation. Years of lies, stolen money, and false promises have left her jaded and exhausted, yet she can’t bring herself to stop hoping for her daughter’s recovery.

This dynamic is painfully familiar to families of addicts. Deb’s decision to let Molly detox in her house, but under strict rules—such as locking her wallet and refusing to let Molly sleep on the couch—reflects the impossible choices parents face. How do you help your child without enabling them? How do you protect yourself without abandoning them? These questions drive Deb’s every interaction with Molly, making her character relatable and authentic.

3. The Fragility of Recovery
   The title Four Good Days refers to the four days Molly must stay sober to qualify for an experimental treatment that blocks opioid receptors and reduces cravings. This small window of sobriety feels like a monumental hurdle for Molly and a fragile glimmer of hope for Deb.

The film captures how recovery is often measured in hours and days, not weeks or months. Every moment Molly stays clean feels like a victory, but the constant threat of relapse looms over every interaction. This mirrors the reality of addiction: recovery is a fragile, ongoing process that requires immense effort from both the addict and their loved ones.

Where Four Good Days Falls Short

1. Oversimplifying Recovery
   While the experimental treatment Molly pursues (based on real medications like naltrexone) is a legitimate tool in recovery, the film risks presenting it as a quick fix. Medications can help reduce cravings and prevent relapse, but they’re not cures. Long-term recovery requires therapy, support systems, and deep emotional work to address the root causes of addiction.

The film focuses heavily on Molly making it to the treatment but doesn’t show the ongoing, messy work of rebuilding her life after addiction. This omission oversimplifies the complexity of recovery and leaves viewers with the impression that treatment ends when the shot is administered.

2. The Compressed Timeline
   The focus on Molly’s four-day detox creates a sense of urgency, but it also compresses the timeline of recovery. Detoxing from heroin is only the first step in a long and arduous process. Many people relapse after detox because the physical symptoms are only one part of the struggle—the emotional and psychological challenges often take months or years to overcome.

By emphasizing the short-term goal of staying clean for four days, the film misses an opportunity to explore the ongoing nature of addiction recovery.

3. Is Deb Struggling With Addiction Too?
   A subtle but significant detail in the film is Deb’s habit of drinking wine during moments of stress. This isn’t explicitly addressed, but it adds an intriguing layer to her character. Is Deb also using substances to cope with pain and stress? Is addiction part of her story, too, albeit in a more socially acceptable form?

While Deb’s wine drinking is minor compared to Molly’s heroin addiction, it raises interesting questions about how addiction manifests in different ways. Could this parallel be part of why Deb struggles to draw boundaries with Molly? These questions are left unanswered, but they deepen the film’s portrayal of addiction as a family issue, not just an individual one.

Visit HealoVerse to explore the AI-powered VR Psychotherapy in combination with at-home ketamine

A Balanced Take on Addiction and Recovery

Overall, Four Good Days succeeds in showing the raw emotional toll of addiction and the complicated dynamics between addicts and their loved ones. Its portrayal of Molly’s desperation and Deb’s heartbreak feels painfully real, and it doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of recovery.

However, the film simplifies some aspects of addiction, particularly the long-term nature of recovery and the deeper family dynamics hinted at by Deb’s drinking. While the four-day timeline and experimental treatment make for a compelling story, they only scratch the surface of what addiction and recovery truly entail.

Conclusion:

Four Good Days is a powerful and emotional film that highlights the devastation addiction brings to families. It captures the pain, hope, and impossible decisions that define the journey of recovery.

At the same time, it leaves some questions unanswered—particularly about Deb’s own reliance on wine—and simplifies the longer, messier work of staying clean. But for anyone who has experienced addiction, either personally or through a loved one, the film offers an honest and relatable glimpse into the highs and lows of fighting this disease.