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By Fred Richardson

Adam Sandler can act. It’s only a little bit of a shock considering his role in Punch-Drunk Love (2002), but even that P.T. Anderson film had it’s share of over-the-top comedic moments.
This Friday’s Movie Times 4/6

In his first non-comedy, Reign Over Me, Sandler plays Charlie Fineman, a former dentist who, after losing his family in 9/11, lives the life of a lone slacker to the fullest. He collects vinyl, plays his PS2 games on a big projected screen, has a well equipped music room and motor-scooters to his only apparent “job,” playing drums for a punk rock open mike night. Sandler does and says some funny things in the movie, but they are natural extensions of the character.

Wait, did I mention the other star of the film? The guy we start the story with? No? The almost always superb Don Cheadle plays Alan Johnson, a dentist who lives the life of a bored professional family man with too much responsibility and not enough freedom. His wife Janeane, an underwritten part that’s admirably played by Jada Pinkett Smith, seems to have everything under control, while Alan is repressed, passive and obviously feeling powerless to change the circumstances he finds himself in.

Soon enough Sandler’s Charlie enters and we get to the heart of the story. Alan encounters his former roommate (Charlie) out on the streets of New York and tries to rekindle the long dormant friendship despite Charlie’s seeming ignorance of who Alan even is. As the relationship between the two develops, Alan escapes into the freedom of “Charlie World” for a while but after one late night adventure, his real world reasserts itself with tragic family news. By Charlie’s reaction to the news Alan begins to really get the extent of his friend’s damage. Alan resolves to try and help Charlie and here the movie really finds focus, with subplots and supporting characters beginning to merge into and support the primary story and it’s protagonists. Again, Sandler is doing much more subtle work than ever before. There are moments when Charlie lashes out violently and Sandler surprises by being quite threatening and dangerous without going overboard.

The supporting cast is very strong and features a number of familiar faces even if we can’t remember where we’ve seen them all before.

Liv Tyler plays therapist Angela Oakhurst as a sincere caring professional who may be just a bit young. As damaged Donna Remar, Saffron Burrows gets laughs in some key early scenes but shows more depth with each appearance. Two more smaller roles feature nice surprises in characters that might not be what they appear to at first. The film’s writer/director Mike Binder plays Brian Sugarman, Alan’s accountant and there’s Adell Modell a prickly landlady played by Rae Allen. Just as Sandler is taking a break from his comedic work, Robert Klein likewise plays Adam’s father-in-law for no laughs, though not unfunny either …again it’s not Klein; it’s the character’s humor. Melinda Dillon gives a great turn as Klein’s wife. Together they seem to be trying to be part of Charlie’s life as a way to help him, but the truth isn’t quite as simple as that.

If it sounds like there’s a lot going on with a lot of characters in Reign Over Me well, there is. Almost too much. Even Alan’s co-workers in the dentist office are interesting, particularly an acerbic receptionist who could have been just a cliché but is used sparingly enough to seem real. And in the “love to see him getting good work category:” near the end of the movie there’s a short court sequence featuring a spectacular performance by Donald Sutherland as a smart, fair, no BS Judge we hope is as realistic as any we might face in court someday.

Technically, the film is shot well and makes New York feel like a much smaller and friendlier place than most movies set there. The soundtrack is solid and fits into the story well. My only real problems with the movie are born out of wanting to see more of these people and their lives. I left the film feeling like I’d seen just a few of the highlights of a good HBO series like Six Feet Under. That said, I was struck by how well the story fit the big screen, as something this intimate in scope might be better suited to TV.

At it’s core Reign Over Me is about the life we want and the life we have and what happens when the two don’t measure up to one another. It’s about loss and how we cope with it. It’s about friendships and family. All these serious subjects could have made for a touchy-feely, over-worked bit of schmaltz, but instead we get a very enjoyable realistic tale that despite a not so perfect ending manages to work quite well.

This Friday’s Movie Times 4/6

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