Reign Over Me Review

Director Mike Binder delivers an above-average portrayal of two normal men with two very familiar problems.

Recently, it seems as if every mainstream movie to hit theatres is about flamboyant superheroes, courageous Spartans, or smoking guns. Now, I love those films, and I'd be a hypocrite to criticize them, but sometimes I want something real. Something I'd experience in a restaurant or on a bus, not in a comic book. Reign Over Me fills that void. It fills it very well.

The film's protagonists are old college roommates Alan Johnson and Charlie Fineman who run into each other years after they've drifted apart. Don Cheadle (Crash, Hotel Rwanda) plays Johnson, a dentist living the American dream with a loving family waiting for him at home every night. Charlie Fineman is the opposite. Portrayed by Adam Sandler (Punch-Drunk Love, Spanglish), Fineman is a tortured soul who is still in a mess after losing his wife and kids in 9/11. The characters may seem extremely different, but they aren't. Both are men with problems having a hard time getting a grasp on their situations. The film deals with loss, the responsibility of relationships, and fighting against yourself to overcome your problems.



What I loved most about Reign Over Me are how the characters are handled in the film. No one is flat, not even the smallest of characters, everyone develops and is shown in neutral light, free from bias. Sure, there are a few characters, namely Fineman's in-laws, who are initially shown to be negative, but they escape from that before the film comes to an end. Writer and Director Mike Binder (The Upside of Anger) really did a great job handling Fineman and Johnson. We experience a full range of their emotions and follow along with them, feeling for them when they are down and laughing along when they pick themselves up.

Another highlight of Reign Over Me is Binder's dialogue. It's smooth and flows well, always feeling natural. It packs a punch when it needs to and delivers comedy (free from one-liners) throughout. Laughs are something I didn't expect from this film. I thought it would be heavy and somewhat depressing, and some of its themes are, but there are many areas where I found myself laughing for the right reasons.

Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle do an excellent job in the film. Sandler's character is a bit on-edge. You're not sure how he'll react to certain things and feel as if his moods could swing at any moment. While Sandler is able to separate himself from normality in the role, he still manages to win over the audience and earn their compassion. Cheadle is also brilliant in the film. His character is impossible to hate. He consistently puts himself out on a limb to rescue Fineman and you want him to succeed. Johnson isn't flat though. It would be easy for Cheadle to play the nice guy with no repercussions but he doesn't, showing his weaknesses when needed, proving that he is in fact human. Liv Tyler, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Saffron Burrows play excellent supporting characters.



Something that really made me smile when watching Reign Over Me are the small parts given to Donald Sutherland, Ted Raimi, and B.J. Novak. Sutherland plays a hard-nosed judge, and does an excellent job standing his ground in the courtroom. Raimi plays a defense lawyer and, while he doesn't have many lines, I felt a giggle coming on whenever his face filled the frame (probably due to his work in Bruce Campbell's Man with the Screaming Brain, among others). B.J. Novak (of The Office fame) plays another lawyer and does a great job acting like a dick yet earning a bit of compassion from the audience.

One problem I did have with the film though was the ending. While I won't spoil it for anyone, I did feel that it dragged on a bit past its welcome and didn't fit onto the foundations Binder established in the first hour and a half of the film. The film takes a bit of a turn in the last half-hour and while it's not a plot-twist, the ending feels different than everything that came before it.



Another complaint, albeit a minor one, I had with Reign Over Me is the colour correction. There are a few shots that were really poorly handled by digital colourist Steven J. Scott as they stand out from the rest of the scene. For example, there's a scene where Johnson and Dr. Oakhurst (Liv Tyler) are sitting in the hospital. The entire scene has a neutral temperature, maybe it's a bit warm, but all of a sudden a shot with a blue hue is thrown into the mix. It wasn't a stylistic choice, believe me, just a poor colour correction job.

Overall I felt that Reign Over Me was a fairly good film. It's a fairly realistic yet entertaining look at people and their problems and how they eventually overcome them. It may not have caped crusaders or archatype heroes but it's an exciting film nonetheless.

One Sentence Review: A good film that relies on its superb writing and fleshed-out characters to progress the plot.

Cheers.

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FILM: Spring Movies Not to Be Missed

There are quite a few films worth checking out in the upcomming months. I take a peek at what's just around the corner and tell what I'm looking forward to.

February:

Reno 911!: Miami. Hits theatres on February 23rd. Directed by Ben Garant (Reno 911! TV series). Starring Thomas Lennon, Ben Garant, Kerri Kenney, and Cedric Yarbrough. Reno 911!: Miami features all the characters you love from the hilarious TV show and throws them into the biggest mess of their police careers. While Reno 911! isn't everyone's cup of tea, I just love the characters and I'd gladly sit in a theatre for an hour and a half and watch them make even bigger asses out of themselves. Danny DeVito, Paul Rudd, Paul Reubens, and Michael Ian Black (Stella!) also play smaller roles in the film. Watch the Reno 911!: Miami trailer HERE.

March:

Zodiac. Hits theatres on March 2nd. Directed by David Fincher (Se7en). Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, and Cloe Sevigny. Zodiac tells the story of the investigators and reports who were terrorized by the Zodiac serial killer in 1970 San Francisco. David Fincher is a perfectionist and great at displaying tension and atmosphere so I'm sure that the film will be a great ride. The only worry I have about this flick thus far is the poor CGI establishing shots in the trailer, but they could be cleaned up before the film's release next month. Check out the Zodiac trailer HERE.

Black Snake Moan. Hits theatres on March 2nd. Directed by Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow). Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci, and Justin Timberlake. Black Snake Moan is the story of an elderly blues musician who holds a victim of childhood sexual abuse against her will in an attempt to free her from her troubles. Read my preview of the film HERE and watch the trailer HERE.

The Host. Hits theatres on March 9th. Directed by Joon-ho Bong (Memories of Murder). Starring Song Kang-Ho, Byun Hee-Bong, Park Hae-IL, Bae Doo-Na, and Ko A-Sung. The Host, or Gwoemul as it's known in Korean, is the story of a fairly poor elderly man, Park Hee-Bong, who runs a snack bar on the banks of Seoul's Han River. One day a mutant creature emerges from the river and kidnaps Park's granddaughter. The film, which released in South Korea during the summer, has gotten international praise and will hopefully awe North American audiences. Check out The Host trailer HERE.



300. Hits theatres on March 9th. Directed by Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead). Starring Gerard Butler, David Wenham, and Lena Headey. 300 is the adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel of the same name. 300 Spartans must face over 1 million soldiers of the Persian Empire in an attempt to be free from slavery. The film has gotten both praise and disgust after early test screenings and will most likely do well at the box office. It is unclear though whether or not it will be as critically superb as Frank Miller's recent adaptation, Sin City. Check out the trailer to 300 HERE.

Reign Over Me. Hits theatres on March 23rd. Directed by Mike Binder (The Upside of Anger). Starring Don Cheadle, Adam Sandler, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Liv Tyler. Reign Over Me is the story of a pair of old college roommates who restart their friendship by running into each other after living very different lives apart. While some may think this is a comedy because it stars the likes of Adam Sandler it seems like a fairly heavy-handed drama, although I'm sure there are comedic qualities throughout. I'm also a fairly large Don Cheadle fan and feel that he's chosen his roles wisely over the past few years, hopefully Reign Over Me turns out to be another good choice. Check out the trailer for Reign Over Me HERE.



Rescue Dawn. Hits theatres on March 30th. Directed by Werner Herzog (Little Dieter Needs to Fly). Starring Christian Bale, Steve Zahn, and Jeremy Davies. Rescue Dawn is the story of a downed fighter pilot who must find a way to survive in a Vietnamese POW camp. I watch anything Christian Bale does and I also have a lot of respect for Herzog so I'll definitely be checking this one out. Read my preview of Rescue Dawn HERE and check out the trailer HERE.

April:

Grindhouse. Hits theatres on April 6th. Directed by Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction) and Robert Rodriguez (Sin City). Starring Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, Rose McGowan, and Michael Biehn. Grindhouse is two extreme action flicks for the price of one. Both directors shot a segment, Tarantino doing Death Proof and Rodriguez shooting Planet Terror, and they will play back-to-back with fake trailers playing during the intermission. Grindhouse is a throwback to the old cinemas that would show two over-the-top films in one sitting for the price of one admission. Now, this could turn out to be a great idea or it could be a complete bomb, either way I have to check it out. Watch the trailer for Grindhouse HERE.

Hot Fuzz. Hits theatres on April 20th. Directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead). Starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Bill Nighy, and Timothy Dalton. There are a lot of reasons to be interested in Hot Fuzz. For starters, it's done by the same creative team behind the top notch film Shaun of the Dead and shares a fairly similar cast. some may even say it's a sequel to the zombie film, while it's a completely different universe. The film has been out in the UK for a little while now and has been getting rave reviews with many critics saying it's better than Shaun, which is very high praise. Hot Fuzz has been on the top of my to-see list since I first heard about it at San Diego Comic-Con over the summer. Check out the trailer for Hot Fuzz HERE.

The Invisible. Hits theatres on April 27th. Directed by David S. Goyer (Blade: Trinity). Starring Justin Chatwin, Michelle Harrison, and Marcia Gay Harden. The Invisible is the story of two teens who are invisible to the rest of the world. It's a concept that's been done before, and done to death, but for some reason I'm interested in the project. It's probably the psychological thriller fanatic inside of me that hasn't been fed for a few months. Hopefully this film feeds that hunger. Check out the trailer for The Invisible HERE.



May:

Spider-Man 3. Hits theatres on May 4th. Directed by Sam Raimi (Army of Darkness). Starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Hayden Church, Topher Grace, and Rosemary Harris. Spider-Man 3 kicks off where the second film left off. Peter is with Mary-Jane (who knows he is Spidey), Harry Osborn is still bent on revenge, and the world is beginning to respect the web-head. Raimi's third film is supposedly darker and more intense than the previous two, but may also be more convoluted as three enemies are thrown into the mix. I have doubts that Spider-Man 3 will be as good a film as the previous two but I'm still pumped to go see it. Check out the trailer for Spider-Man 3 HERE.

Well, those are the films I'm looking forward to in the next few months. Is there anything I missed. Let me know what flicks you're looking forward to seeing.

Cheers.

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