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Rating:  -
That's it in a nutshell. Everyone knows that Don Cheadle is a good actor but Adam Sandler? That remark would have been a joke a few years ago when Sandler was churning one offensive, comedy after another but not now. He still does his lame comedies and I really wish he would do more drama as clearly he can do drama with movies like "Punch-Drunk Love".
Anyways, it's about time we had more movies dealing with people dealing with the post 9/11 aftermath. Hell, Hollywood has milked the event to produce one war movie after another so this was a refreshing change.
Sandler plays Charlie Fineman, a guy living like a kid, in his own world. However, we see this as a front for the real pain and agony he has experience since 9/11 (as he lost his family in that event). Little by little Charlie's shows signs of anger, grief, insanity, and periods of illusion as he is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.
I love Sandler in this, he totally "gets" the role. I liked his character more than Alan Johnson who was totally shall we say ungrateful of the life he has and the life Charlie doesn't have. Johnson tries to get Charlie better but fails until he meets Angela Oakhurst a psychologist/shrink played excellently by Liv Tyler. Man she is beautiful and so talented. Anyways, Angela tells Johnson the diagnosis. However, trouble is ahead as Charlie's behavior has prompted the courts to decide whether he should be committed for some outrageous behavior.
Besides capturing the character of someone suffering from the events of 9/11 this movie is another commentary on the way society perceives such victims. We feel sorry but we do really want to be around? Especially people like Charlie who has obvious issues. The answer doesn't seem as comforting as most people will admit. I think some people who will sympathize with Charlie's "situation" will only do so up to a certain point and then expect them to move on from the event like nothing ever happened. Of course that is the worst thing they could do yet they do it. Alan's friendship with has certain limits. Charlie's own family in disgusting fashion seems doesn't seem to consider the pain that he is in instead of concentrating on who they lost, not who they are losing (that is still alive) right in front of them.
Anyways, this is a great movie, judging by the wide number of reviews "Reign Over Me" will be held as a great movie for a long time.
Rating: -
The nonstop reverberating horror of September 11, 2001, has spawned a number of notable films and REIGN OVER ME deserves a place among them. The opening scenes of the movie are brilliantly simple, starting with Adam Sandler as Charlie Fineman gliding through New York City on his scooter like an overgrown kid floating through a dream until awakened from it by his former college roommate, Don Cheadle as Alan Johnson.
The light comic tone set by writer and director Mike Binder at the beginning of "Reign Over Me" allows viewers to become comfortable with the idea of a new and unique kind of "guy movie." We settle down to be entertained by former roommates who re-enter each other's life and presumably will experience all kinds of hilarity as a result. That presumption, it turns out, reveals only a very small part of a very big story. A current popular expression states that "People come into our lives for a reason." But in the case of this movie, we might change it to "People come back into our lives for a reason."
The more Charlie and Alan reintegrate themselves into each other's life, the more clear it becomes that both are living with deeply hidden wounds that block their desire for happiness. In Alan's case, it's his seeming dissatisfaction with a marriage in which he has begun to feel stifled and his frustration with the bossy partners in a small but successful dental clinic that he established. On the other hand, Charlie's primary issue appears to be a case of burned-out stoner until we learn that he lost his wife and children on 9/11. Years after the event, the blow is still such a devastating one that he can barely function outside of riding his scooter, sitting in as a drummer on late-night club jam sessions, and playing electronic games. Millions of dollars collected in insurance money don't help much either. The loss of his family has left him so detached from any sense of connection and ordinary emotions that he is completely devoid of compassion when Alan's father dies. Upon hearing the news, instead of nodding with understanding when Alan declines his invitation to hang out and eat Chinese food, Charlie tells him, "Come on, don't be such a p_ssy."
As heavy as "Reign Over Me" can get at times, it also contains a lot of feel-good moments as well, such as when Saffron Burrows, as Alan's patient Donna Remar, innocently declares she would have sex with him if he wished just so she can get the urge to do so out of her system. It's also genuinely moving to see the support that Charlie and Alan try to provide each other as they confront their individual demons/dilemmas. In addition, Jada Pinkett Smith as Alan's wife, Liv Tyler as Charlie's therapist, and Donald Sutherland as a judge round out a powerful supporting cast.
What we witness at the end of "Reign Over Me," with the sound of Pearl Jam wailing soul-ripping angst in the background, is a man with a brutally broken heart struggling to find enough faith and strength to help him believe that his life can somehow become good and worth living again. It's not hard to identify with Charlie because the pain he continues to feel, even as he takes steps toward healing himself, makes a perfect symbol for the pain people all over the world continue to feel and live following September 11, 2001, seven whole years ago as of this writing.
By Author-Poet Aberjhani
author of ELEMENTAL, The Power of Illuminated Love
and The American Poet Who Went Home Again
Rating: -
I have not been a fan of Adam Sandler, but when I saw this to rent, I thought it looked interesting. Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle are great!! I enjoyed it so much, I ordered it and had my husband watch it and he enjoyed it as well. Very moving. The characters draw the audience into their world.
Rating: -
I love Adam Sandler, first off. I'm a huge fan of idiotic comedies such as Billy Madison and grew up as a teen about the same time they came out, so he's a bit of a favirote of mine as a comedic actor. The best part I think about Adam is that he does most of the writing and stuff for his material and LOVES to bring in his friends to play a small role in almost every movie he makes. Recently, however, his movies have developed a lot more plot sense and they are becoming less and less like the Adam we all know and love, such as 40 First Dates(a very sweet love story, but hilarious all the while) and Reign Over Me.
This movie came as a bit of a surprise for me and my fiance. I had no idea it had a contextual story based on the events of 9/11 until I watched it. There have been a few stinkers in my mind(Twin Towers and the other film I forget the name of right now) that tried to represent a real picture of the 9/11 tragedy. This movie is not in any way like those movies. Reign Over Me attemptes to portray a real life, honest-to-goodness account of someone who's life was directly impacted by the attack, but it never takes center stage.
Adam plays Charlie Fineman, a man who has lost himself in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. I don't like giving too mucgh info on the plot so, long storry short, Don Cheadle is an old, but very close, friend to Charlie and discovers him one day in New York and they begin to rekindle the friendship they once had. The friendship serves as he backbone of the entire movie and is really heartwarming, I must say, you feel like Sandler and Cheadle have been friends for years and they do exceedingly well at pulling off their respective roles. Cheadle's character also stands to gain a lot of perspective from this renewed friendship and the bond they reforge is eventually what causes Charlie to begin to come back to reality. There is a moment in the movie, I won't say which because you'll know if you watch it, where both I and my fiance could not help but cry. Sandler's performance truelly surprised me and I am extremelly happy to say it shows his real skill as an actor. I'm not much of a cryer myself, being a "man" and all >.< but I recently rewatched the movie, by myself, and I cried harder this time than I did the first. I already love Cheadle as an actor and he is very well known as a strong support or lead ever since Hotel Rowanda, so I don't think I need to say much about his performance at all.
All in all, I think this movie should have been nominated for some academy awards but it was overlooked, most likelly due to the fact that Adam Sandler was cast as the lead and god forbid they take him seriously. This movie is funny, sad, happy, heart-wrenching, and ultimatelly satisfying and I hope this review makes more people go out and buy it because I honestly feel you will walk away from the experience feeling nearly as satisfied as I did.
Rating:  -
Adam Sandler takes on one of his rare dramatic roles in "Reign Over Me," playing a man suffering from acute post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by the loss of his wife and daughters on 9/11. Once a successful dentist, Charlie Fineman has now retreated to a world of his own, cut off from friends, family members and even the memories of his old life. Don Cheadle plays Alan Johnson, Charlie's former college roommate with a successful dental practice of his own who runs into Charlie on the street one day and slowly, tentatively offers him the hand of friendship. The movie chronicles the slow but steady healing process that takes place as a result of that friendship.
Given the setup, one wouldn`t expect Alan to turn out to be the more complex, layered and compelling of the two characters. But in writer/director Mike Binder's gifted hands, we come to see that Alan is struggling every bit as much as Charlie is with his own set of weaknesses, insecurities and inadequacies, albeit not in so obvious a fashion. For the major difference between Alan and Charlie is that Alan can at least manage to hold his life together and remain a productive adult while Charlie clearly cannot. Is Alan drawn to Charlie because he sincerely wants to help him, or is he drawn to him because, in some strange way, he envies the freedom that Charlie`s dysfunctional life affords him? Or is it a little of both? The beauty of the character - and of Cheadle's magnificently rich interpretation of him - is that we never really know the answer to those questions.
Binder is notably less successful at getting into Charlie`s head, partly because Sandler's performance, while not bad, lacks the subtle shadings we find in Cheadle's. Still, there are moments in which Sandler effectively captures the heartbreaking pain that his character is going through. The movie also boasts very fine work from Jada Pinkett Smith, as Alan's wife; Melinda Dillon as Charlie's concerned mother-in-law; Saffron Burrows as a mentally disturbed patient who comes on to Alan in his office; Liv Tyler as a compassionate psychiatrist; and Paula Newsome as Alan's sassy office receptionist who provides some much needed humor to lighten the load.
The movie could be criticized for having a few too many subplots cluttering up the main storyline, but I argue that it is those very subplots that are indispensable to the movie, since they help to flesh out Alan's character and world. It's true that the film does run on too long and that it occasionally feels a bit too contrived, simplistic and cutesy for its own good, but, on the whole, this is a moving, thoughtful film that treats both its subject matter and its audience with the respect they deserve.
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