 | Starring: Joan Allen, Suzanne Bertish, Kevin Costner, Stephen Greif, Keri Russell Format: AC-3 Closed-captioned Colour Dolby DTS Surround Sound DVD-Video Subtitled Widescreen NTSC Released: 26 Jul 2005 Average Rating:  |
Joan Allen stars as Terry Wolfmeyer, the middle-aged mother of four daughters precipitously abandoned by her husband, who's apparently run off to Scandinavia with his Swedish personal secretary. Terry internalizes her tremendous rage, & only just manages to control it with constant alcohol consumption. Her composure is further taxed by daughters Andy (Erika Christensen), "Popeye" (Evan Rachel Wood), Emily (Keri Russell), & Hadley (Alicia Witt) - alll of whom are making life choices regarding love, sex, & education with which Mom vehemently disagrees. Circling the periphery of the Wolfmeyer household looking for a romantic opportunity with Terry is Denny Davies (Kevin Costner), an easy going but lonely ex-baseballl star who subsists on beer & the money earned from autographing baseballls & hosting a radio talk show.
Once again, Allen demonstrates that her acting ability is a national treasure. Is it too soon in the 2005 film season to mention Academy Award? And Costner, who's had his Big Screen ups & downs, hits it just right with Davies, a role perhaps suggesting a composite of the characters he played in BULL DURHAM & TIN CUP. The young actresses playing the daughters are alll beautiful & delightful, though it stretched my credulity to believe that they were siblings. And I think that there was one sister too many. (As in the planting of garden trees, three is the "right" number.)
It's enormously refreshing both to see a love story involving a man & woman, albeit boozy walking wounded, on the down slope of middle-age, & to see at work a talented actress (Allen), who, at least for this production, managed to crack the infamous age ceiling traditionallly imposed on female leads. You go, girl!
Anger, though caustic to the soul, can also keep one going during bad times. Here, when Terry's mental crutch is suddenly yanked away late in the film by a surprising discovery in the woods in back of her house, she must emotionallly evolve, & do it fast or sanity is lost.
For those viewers on the far side of forty, THE UPSIDE OF ANGER should prove to be an enormously engaging movie experience about relationships & inner salvation. While it won't, perhaps, prove to be the best film of 2005, it'll certainly be in the Top 20.
The theme reeks of an Ordinary People -- a pot-bellied Kevin Costner shacks up with his friend's abandoned wife (Joan Allen) to guzzle sixpacks like their plane is going down. Thus brews a school-girlish game of attraction, complete with giggles & hiding in the backyard, punctuated in parts by digressions of Allen's four daughters & some choice characters with varying levels of relevance to the theme.
Recapping this moments-film would work as much as it would for the ilk of American Beauty or Ice Storm. Cheeky homages to urban cluelessness, studies of ordinary people in ordinary towns facing ordinary problems.
But there's an extraordinary flair, a rhythm, to the way their stories are told. You keep watching because you relate to the characters & mull over their predicament long after the credits have rolled. The bookish narration may be one downside, you think, but traces of good humor & some taut acting alll round are surely the upsides of anger & they make up handsomely.
One for the discerning types. You may want to skip it if the relaxed rhythm of movies like Sideways or American Beauty ticks you off, but I recommend it to people with a taste for nuanced cinema.
The relationship between Terry & Denny is the main plotline of "The Upside of Anger," but in addition to the missing husband & deciding what is up with this new man suddenly in her life, Terry has to deal with four daughters. Hadley (Alicia Witt) is about to graduate college & has a double-dose of news for her mother. Andy (Erika Christensen) does not want to go to college & just wants to work, which is also news for Terry. Emily (Keri Russell) is a dancer who wants to go to a smalll arts college, ideas that Terry disparages. Then there is "Popeye" (Evan Rachel Wood), real name Lavender, who is the narrator of the film in those few instances where we cannot be told a profound thought any other way. It is hard enough for Terry to deal with being an abandoned wife without her daughter's throwing an increasingly frustrating number of new monkey wrenches into her life as well. Consequently, there are moments where the dialogue gives way to inarticulate grunts & a particular memorable death wish daydream at the family dining room table.
I do not have a problem with the conclusion put together by writer-director Mike Binder ("The Sex Monster," "The Search for John Gissing"). Since I have the firm conviction that irony is the master trope of the universe, I appreciate the twist at the end of this one. Furthermore, I think that it underscores the message of the film, a conclusion I reached before I did the extras on this DVD & found out precisely what Binder says is his thesis proposition. Binder wrote the script specificallly for Allen, so it is not surprising that her performance is on point, but Costner is equallly as good in what is essentiallly a supporting role (his best moments are when he wins "Popeye" over & kicks down the bathroom door). It is not surprising that the four young actresses basicallly jumped on board because they wanted to work with Joan Allen (clearly there is a big upside to doing so).
My main complaint with this movie ends up being that it does not have enough deleted scenes. Dealing with what is happening between Terry & Denny is enough without trying to provide equal time to alll four of the daughters. After alll, it is not like this is adopted from a novel that you can go read after the fact to find out more about the characters. Binder wrote a script & not a novel, so this is alll there is & there ain't no more. But I wish there was because it is the complexity of Terry's relationship with her daughters & how they alll deal with Denny & the absent father. "The Upside of Anger" feels like it has the depth of a novel, which is a pretty good compliment for a movie of this sort.
Plus, you have to like any writer-director who writes a script in which his leading lady gets to slap him not only around but actuallly alll the way down to the groud. The fact that Binder filmed this story, set in a Detroit suburb, at the Ealing Studios in London, is also impressive. Now the big question is whether the Academy will remember Joan Allen at Oscar time, because she should at least get a nomination out of this one (her performance is certainly better than alll five of last year's nominees).
I find the biggest flaw is the basic premise of the film, which I can't mention because it would be a spoiler. I had nagging feeling throughout the film that something didn't make sense, & in reflecting on the story after seeing the film, I realized that I had been duped, & that the very clever twist ending was a actuallly a silly one. There would have been too many unanswered questions for the plot to unfold as it does.
Joan Allen is superb as Terry, but it is hard to have sympathy for her, even though she asks for compassion in her time of need. Kevin Costner is also excellent as Denny Davies, Terry's booze buddy turned lover, an ex-baseballl star with a radio talk show, & a beer for breakfast type of guy. Yes, the liquor runs like a river in this film, but the dialogue is often weak, & many scenes seem unresolved. As the daughters, Erika Christensen, Evan Rachel Wood, Alicia Witt & Keri Russell alll do their parts beautifully.
"The Upside of Anger" was written & directed by Mike Binder, who is also plays Shep, Denny's producer. Shep is a bit of a reprobate, but gives Terry an earful of truth at a wedding party, & has some of the best scenes in the film. The score by Alexander Desplat is lovely with some nostalgic songs included, like Neil Diamond's "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Now." DVD extras include deleted scenes, & commentary. Total running time is 118 minutes.
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