Reign Over Me - Review

Writer/Director Mike Binder is the master of missed opportunities. HBO gave him a chance to create the “he said” version of Sex and the City, a bona fide slam dunk for the network. So what does he do? Creates a tedious, drawn-out exercise in male unpleasantness, which, to the shock of nobody, faced a quick execution.

Then there was The Upside Of Anger, a film that had its moments but ultimately suffocated on its own self-importance. With his latest release, Reign Over Me, he seems poised to turn it all around. And he does--until his bad habits leak into the movie and pollute it.

For two-thirds of the way, Reign Over Me is a surprisingly solid flick. Don Cheadle plays Alan Johnson, a successful dentist who has a perfect wife (Jada Pinkett Smith) and perfect kids, but feels a gaping hole in his life that resembles one of his patient’s cavities. He craves excitement, something to pry him away from the 1000-piece puzzles he does with his wife before they hit the hay at 10:30 p.m. every evening.

Which is why when he sees his old college roommate, Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler), riding a scooter around the city and listening to music, he is strangely drawn to him. But Charlie has lived through an unfathomable tragedy: His wife, three daughters--and even the family poodle--were killed on September 11, and he can’t find the will to recover.

The movie is mainly about their friendship and how they help each other reclaim their zest for life. It all sounds awfully hokey, but Binder is smart enough to keep the tone light for most of it, showing them hanging out and doing guy things in between Sandler’s spontaneous fits of rage in clubs or office lobbies. He's blocked out his old life, and if someone dares to bring it up to him, he goes all kinds of ballistic. Call it the Hollywood version of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, similar to the Hollywood version of Cancer Victim where the woman has perfectly applied make-up while resting on her death bed.

But the true standout isn’t Sandler, since his character isn’t written as an actual human being. The movie belongs to Cheadle. He’s the guy you really care about and he’s the guy you want to see get everything he wants out of life. When a beautiful yet unstable patient (Saffron Burrows) tries to corner him in his office for sex, he tosses her out and slams the door. What’s not to like about a guy like that and a movie about a guy like that.

Which brings us back to Binder and his knack for missteps. In a better version of Reign Over Me, the loony patient would not pop up in Charlie’s life as a potential love interest. There wouldn’t be a big courtroom showdown with Donald Sutherland sitting behind the bench scolding his lawyers. And the eponymous song by The Who wouldn’t be played on several occasions to pound home the message.

Reign Over Me is a wildly uneven ride, one that has moments of brilliance that get washed away by the contrivances plaguing the overwrought, lingering last third. Binder almost had it with this one; if only he knew the right time to walk away.

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry - Review

Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor won an Oscar for their screenplay for Sideways. For their part in dropping the big stink bomb I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry—their co-conspirator Barry Fanaro won two Emmys for his work on The Golden Girls, but that somehow seems appropriate—the Academy should force them to give it back. As scripts go, this one reeks. It never rises above the level of a really wretched sitcom. And in presenting a ludicrous scenario in which two straight guys pretend to be gay, it tries to have it both ways. The humor is often deliberately offensive—racist, sexist, and homophobic as it reaches for the hat trick—but then it wraps it all up in a politically correct bow in the end.

In other words, it is a typical Adam Sandler movie, since again he plays the mean-spirited jerk who is revealed to be a nice guy in the end. Once more, it is a transition that defies belief, as does his role as New York firefighter Chuck Levine, catnip to the ladies—apparently Chuck & Larry takes place in some bizarro world where petulant truculence is considered charming. He reluctantly agrees to become domestic partner to his best friend, fellow fireman and widower Larry Valentine (Kevin James) to protect Larry's pension for his two kids in the event of Larry's death (it's a long, incredible story). When fraud investigator Clinton Fitzer (Steve Buscemi) starts sniffing around, the pals travel to Canada to marry on the advice of attorney Alex McDonough (Jessica Biel).

The results are predictable. Their fellow firefighters ostracize them when the news gets out, even though they should be among the first to realize that it is all a scam. The pair become a cause celebre in the gay community. Chuck falls in love with Alex, who just adores her new gay best friend so much that she invites him to feel her up just to prove her breasts are real. Not a stereotype, gay or straight, goes unturned, finding expression even in the guise of Larry's musical-loving young son (Cole Morgen). And for good measure, Sandler's fellow SNL alum Rob Schneider adds some ugly Asian stereotypes for good measure in his role as a wedding chapel proprietor. Even in a comedy as tasteless as this one strives to be, some of the humor is really beyond the pale, such as when Chuck—who is constantly telling Larry that he needs to get past his wife's death already, it's been three years—tries to get under Larry's skin by joking about his dead spouse. Yep, the guy's a keeper all right.

But I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry's biggest sin is not in the many ways it seeks to offend or in the way it veers into PC self-righteous sanctimony at the climax or even in its insistence that a bright lawyer like Alex would fall for a smarmy jackass like Chuck. No, what makes this celluloid trash one of the worst movies that you may suffer through this year is that it is not funny. It does not aim high, yet it cannot even hit the low targets it sets for itself. It is simply painful.