 Rating: R
Starring: Don Cheadle, Adam Sandler, Saffron Burrows, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Liv Tyler
Directed By: Mike Binder
Mike Binder reaps the pleasures of playing small parts in the movies he directs. To be honest, Mr. Binder proves himself quite versatile. He can write, direct and act in his own films. He does just that in his latest masterpiece, Reign Over Me, a story about two men whose lives, juxtoposed on the screen, appears more like a study about the difference between good and bad karma versus a pathetic contradiction between lifestyles.
 Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) is a forty-something year-old dentist. He's also a husband and a father residing in the better part of the east side of Manhattan. Upon first observation, one would deduce that Dr. Johnson has it made. With such a seemingly perfect life, who could imagine there was any room for unhappiness?
However, as the audience delves into Alan's world, it is clear that all is not so picture perfect. Alan is a man chained down with enormous responsibilities because he is too nice and too much of a gentleman to let down his family and colleagues. His domineering wife just doesn't understand that her hobbies don't interest him. His colleagues can't seem to grasp that he is the one that gives them a reason to wake up every morning, and because this is so, should not be so judgmental and nonsupporting when a patient by the name of Donna Remar (Saffron Burrows) slaps a lawsuit against him—falsely accusing him of making sexual advances toward her, whilst still in the chair.
Alan knows something is wrong with his perfect little world, but it's not until he crosses paths with the most unlikely solution to his problem that he realizes just how deeply troubled he is by his inner turmoil. Alan bumps into his old roommate from dental school, Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler).
So, what's so special about Charlie Fineman? Maybe it's the fact that Charlie doesn't remember Alan at first. Maybe it's that Charlie gets to spend his days riding all over Manhattan on a scooter, haunting music stores that sell albums from his favorite bands of the seventies and eighties. Charlie lives like a recluse and buries himself in teenage angst: Video games, Mel Brooks movie marathons, night clubs, rock and roll. Charlie is foot loose and fancy free—no responsibilities. His biggest decision is how to decorate his kitchen for the gazillionth time.
Charlie no longer practices dentistry. He doesn't have to practice anything. Not since the government paid him an obscene amount of money in damages. Oh, yes, Charlie struck it rich—the day he lost his wife and all three of his children—when their plane from Boston crashed into one of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.
Reign Over Me is the heart-wrenching story of how two men manage to rescue one another from their lonely and over-burdened existence. Alan is over burdened with responsibility and Charlie is distraught with grief. This film explores how a friendship, not psycho-babbling, court appointed psychiatrists or over-protective lawyers, helps a man cope with the single most devastating loss imaginable.
Reign Over Me captures that single idealistic concept that there lies a hero within all of us, if we are only willing to rise to the occasion.
This is precisely what Alan does, when trying to help Charlie come to terms with his horrendous loss. The audience squirms in their seats as they watch Alan's tedious and somewhat seemingly futile attempts to reach Charlie. Alan prevails in spite of Charlie's unpredictable, explosive tirades, triggered by Charlie's own paranoia that Alan is just another head shrink in disguise.
Alan's unceasing efforts leave the audience baffled—no average human being would tolerate such behavior. On the other hand, it is implied that perhaps the reason Alan is so determined to help his old classmate is because Charlie's world is an attractive paradox from his own.
Charlie's pathetic situation functions as an excuse for Alan to do all the things that he misses, because he chose to live an upper-middle class lifestyle.
The movie's narrative culminates when Angela Oakhurst (Liv Tyler), a psychiatrist and friend of Alan's, convinces Charlie that he needs to open up and deal with his pain. Charlie eventually surrenders to the nightmares of his past, by permitting the walls of his hideous past to collapse, allowing Alan inside. The audience in turn is allowed a glimpse of his wondrous past world.
Why is Reign Over Me so extraordinary even in its most disturbing moments? Maybe it is because, somehow, Mr. Binder has the audience believing that these characters could be any one of us. In spite of Alan's near perfect life or Charlie's reclusive, miserable existence, somehow these two characters share something in common with the viewers of this production.
Like all of us, these two men must face the fact that nothing, neither good or bad, stays the same. We must resign ourselves to go with the flow. When we need help, we needn't be afraid to reach out. Perhaps, in reaching out, we invariably allow another person to discover the hero within themselves.
Don Cheadle gives a wonderful performance as the typical, middle-aged, mild-mannered guy, just trying to understand his poor, depressed chum. Adam Sandler's performance as the lost soul who mesmerizes the audience with his ability to make us laugh and cry, is absolutely Oscar winning!
Its probably one of those films where the performances are so good and the direction and writing are superb, but that it will go unnoticed or overlooked because of bad timing as far as its release is concerned.
From the review I've read here, and the good things I've seen on it elsewhere, I will definitely be adding it to my must see list. I have been hearing nothing but good things about this movie. I think I might have to go out and see this one just to see Sandler "act". |
