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Reign Over Me
Reviewed by Theo Michelfeld
Posted: March 23, 2007

It’s time to stop pretending Adam Sandler is just a clown. People, he is an actor, who frequently plays a clown. Meanwhile, in the occasional dramatic role, he's been consistently good. He was good in Spanglish, he was really good in Punch Drunk Love, and as a grief-struck widower in the new film Reign Over Me, his performance is effortless, thoroughly convincing, and yes, funny. I wouldn’t say he’s as good as Tom Wilkinson’s grief-struck father in In The Bedroom. But he’s better than Sean Penn’s grief-struck father in Mystic River. Hey, don’t raise your eyebrows, folks. I don’t make the news, I just report it. Anyway, Adam Sandler detractors, the joke’s on you. The clown can act.

Meanwhile there is more to this movie than Sandler’s performance, and not all of it measures up. Reign Over Me is written and directed by Mike Binder, who recently directed The Upside of Anger, a similarly shaky but heartfelt film. In this new film, Don Cheadle plays Alan, a successful New York dentist and family man who runs into an old college roommate, Charlie, played by Sandler. Charlie has lost his family in 9/11, and Alan quickly discovers that his old friend is ruined by heartache. He, and eventually others, try to help Charlie confront the grief, but they soon find themselves facing a formidable challenge.

Reign Over Me is all heart. It’s noble, and engaging, and when all’s said and done, it’s a good movie. But it’s much more eloquent about suffering than it is about healing. The strength of this film, aside from the performances, is the way Binder’s script illustrates a grief that leaves everyone helpless. In this regard, his characters effectively embody the damage our nation absorbed on 9/11. But when it comes to the subject of healing, Binder is groping in the dark. His effort certainly took guts, but it may also leave the viewer wishing for a wiser perspective. Perhaps the subject is best articulated poetically. For a great film about healing, I recommend The Crossing Guard, directed and written with sheer brilliance by Sean Penn. (I’ve got your back, Sean Penn.)

Binder’s film lacks this kind of vision. Lip service is paid to notions of open communication and self-forgiveness, but the benefits of these choices are not properly illustrated; at certain turning points, the film seems to describe itself rather than act itself out. Also, Reign Over Me suffers from occasionally weak dialogue, a plot contrivance that belongs in the dictionary under “plot contrivance,” and a conclusion that can most generously be described as “wayward.”

None of which mattered much to me. The film wears its flaws with a disarming shrug. It banks heavily on a bit of stunt casting that unquestionably works. Adam Sandler shows a real understanding of his character’s pathology, the defense mechanisms of a man who refuses to contemplate an unthinkable event. And near the film’s conclusion, with the help of a spellbound Don Cheadle and Liv Tyler, he delivers a monologue that achieves, with heartbreaking effectiveness, Binder’s real goal: the expression of an unbearable grief. To trash a film this sincere would be tasteless. Mike Binder, your courage is admirable. Keep up the good work.

Copyright © 2007 Theo Michelfeld