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Rating:  -
"I just feel that it would be good if you opened up to someone."
Another rare film which tells its tale in every detail. One man (Cheadle), lonely and withdrawn in spite of his familial and professional success, spots an old friend (Sandler), and realizes that, comparatively, he has it pretty good. Sandler's character is a mentally shattered 911 widower, lost in his own sad world; Cheadle is the only one who can reach him. The two men, as they reforge an old bond, step closer to closure and wholeness.
It's no fairy tale. The movie has laughs, and sweet moments, but it also has jarring scenes of mental illness, violence and despair. It is a bittersweet and moving piece, not a cute one. I applaud Sandler's new depth; almost every actor in the film subtly reinforces the message of the importance of communication and connection, in a tragic world.
Rating:  -
2.5 stars. This movie started with a good premise but due to a couple of bad casting and a rambling script this movie falls short. Don Cheadle's performance feels watered down mainly because Adam Sandler and Liv Tyler gives him very little to work with. I can't help but feel Adam TRYING to act. It's a reoccuring problem that shows up in his dramatic efforts of the past. Only time he shines is during the few comedic moments-and even then Adam Sandler is Adam Sandler. He's not like a Robin Williams who flip the script effortlessly between comedy and serious dramatic roles. Liv Tyler truely is a blank slate-her acting range is near zero since she seems to be playing herself no matter what the role as well. My main problem with the film is that it FEELS long. Cheadle's storyline tends to get dropped for large portions of the film and I wonder why Jada Pinkett can't land a part that will give her more than 20 minutes of screen time. Over all it's not a very memorable film.
Rating:  -
Every actor goes slumming once in a while. Nicholas Cage does it quite often, and always with the highest sense of, "I'm doing this because I want to" shooting from his psychotic eyes. I didn't, however, ever believe that Don Cheadle, my favorite strut-walking acting dynamo, could ever go slumming at a time when he is arguably at his zenith in terms of recognition. Well, he went slumming in Reign Over Me, a quasi-sophisticated film about the burden of friendship and the importance of healing.
If you watch this film closely and remove yourself from the garage sale-type plotline, you will see a Sandler laughably trying too hard, and a Cheadle not trying hard enough. This combination is horrifically combustible and acts like a pin being thrust into your left kneecap while your torturers merrily play John Tesh music in the background.
Sandler, as always, resorts to screaming and looking red-eyed as opposed to actually playing a believable character not named Billy Madison. Cheadle, on the flipside, seems mentally engaged in some other realm, wandering an ethereal plain of lower consciousness where the paychecks play water polo in Paycheck Land.
PLOT:
Two friends meet after years of separation following the 911 tragedy that took the lives of one of their families. They banter on about music, they play video games, they get drunk, they strategize about women, they heal, they weep, Sandler overacts, Cheadle under acts, and in the end, you'll likely be left wanting to bury your copy of this DVD in the remote Arizona wasteland.
Sound like fun?
Carry on, dear children, and let the attacks on my review begin. Pressing "NO" on the helpful reviewer segment below this will not change the fact that Reign Over Me is a pile of dog vomit disguised as a deeply poignant film of friendship and loyalty.
Rating:  -
REIGN OVER ME is a powerful drama with a few liberal portions of comedy mixed throughout. It is also Adam Sandler's most powerful and upstanding performance to date.
Many movie watchers have probably seen plenty of the post-911 movies that've come out in recent years: World Trade Center and United 93 being the most notable. But what most movie-goers haven't seen is the long-term after-affects of that day on the lives of those left behind. Film studios wanted to show the special effect, the gore, or the panic of the day. But if we take our heads out of the clouds (and off of those collapsed structures) and focus them on the heads of those who lost everything, the glimpse is much more personal, much more gripping.
I wasn't expecting much when I heard that Adam Sandler (Click) had taken one of the lead roles. He's known more as a Saturday Night Live goofball and comedic talent. And although there are funny moments in Reign Over Me, none of them really fall in Sandler's normally outlandish comfort-zone.
Sandler plays John Dillon lookalike Charlie Fineman, a man who lost his entire family on one of the planes that struck the Twin Towers. Years have passed and he suffers from the worst case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder you could imagine. Wandering around on his gas-powered skateboard, he acknowledges no one, living a secluded life both externally and internally. Until...
Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle, Crash) went to college with Charlie, both of them at that time studying to become dentists. They'd grown apart, even though they were roommates, but now Alan spots Charlie on the street and sparks up a strange conversation with him. Charlie doesn't seem to remember him, but later comes to accept that he and Alan were indeed friends at some point. The two form an unusual bond based on communication problems. Charlie can't communicate for fear of ripping his heart out, and Alan can but won't for fear of losing his individuality to his wife (Jada Pinkett Smith).
Clashes and questions build as the two men get closer and closer. Unable to break through to Charlie, Alan eventually employees the services of a pretty young psychiatrist named Angela Oakhurst (Liv Tyler, The Lord of the Rings). But even she can't seem to puncture the bubble that Charlie has built up around the loss of his family.
Meanwhile, Alan is battling the sexual advances of a dental patient named Donna Remar (Saffron Burrows, Fay Grim), his lack of communication skills with his wife, and his grumpy receptionist (played by Paula Newsome, Little Miss Sunshine). Amazingly, Alan's relationship with Charlie helps him deal with all of these issues while at the same time helping Charlie regain some composure to his life.
Sandler's portrayal of a mentally unstable post-911 survivor is quite good. His methods of avoidance are psychiatrically accurate, including listening to loud music, not finishing projects, rocking back-and-forth during times of increasing stress, and collecting inane object (like vinyl records of bad bands). But Cheadle is the real star here. His desperate need to help Charlie (and thus himself) are so simply pulled off the viewing audience will hardly notice the subtle changes that occur within him.
Although there are some trite lines ("I have no one. At least you two have each other."), the story itself is engrossing and well thought-out.
Rating: -
This movie first starts of with a quite successful dentist Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle), that has a lot going for him but feels unfulfilled with his repetitive lifestyle, that all changes when he crosses paths with an old collage roommate Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler), buying paint from the store and unluckily walking the opposite direction from him in peak hour traffic that denies him time or space to get his attention.
Eventually he finds his old friend once again in the street riding a scooter
listening to music (which he likes to do often) and finally this time he gets his attention.
Alan Johnson after meeting his friend again several times notices something off about the way he lives his life, he doesn't, and soon after experiences big explosions from Charlie which first happens in a bar when he mentions his old family (that was killed in the 9/11 incident), and soon enough realizes that he has not moved on since then, and in fact has gone into a state of denial which erupts in a lot of violent and destructive behavior.
This is a very compelling story in the prospective of the victims of the tragic 9/11 disaster and how it still affects their lives today, and the thing I really enjoyed about this film was that it wasn't another story about what happened when it happened how or why it happened but instead a story about who it affected and in what way did it effect this person who used to be a happy sociable individual who was always glad to express himself and into an empty shell filled with a rage and frustration that gets unleashed whenever someone tries to open that shell up.
Adam Sandler does a very good job with this role and i was very happy to see him progress himself as an actor by taking on a more serious role to make him a more all round actor that can adapt to many other genres besides comedy.
A triumph of a movie and a step further for Adam Sandler.
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