Film Reviews

Reign Over Me

• Rating:
• Director: Mike Binder.
• Starring: Don Cheadle, Adam Sandler, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Liv Tyler.
• Details: US / 124mins (16).

Dentist Alan Johnson (Cheadle) is under the cosh at work and at home: he's being sued by crazy patient Donna (Saffron Burrows), while his wife Janeane (Pinkett-Smith) constantly hen pecks him into submission. When out driving one day, Alan runs into his old college roommate Charlie Fineman (Sandler), a former dentist who hasn't been able to get his life together after his wife and children were killed during 9/11. Charlie is aloof, like he's living in a dream-like state and refuses to even address the ocean of sadness festering below the surface. The two old buddies bond and find some common ground amidst the chaos of their lives. Reign Over Me is a missed opportunity. Director and writer Binder had a chance to really burrow into the post 9/11 stories but decided to turn his film into another formulaic buddy movie. The story and characters deserved a more serious treatment than the sentimental and comedic overtones Binder employs. The lightweight approach kills any possibility for real drama and when the big weepy scenes finally arrive, we haven't been emotionally set up for them and so they pass by almost unnoticed. Sandler, looking a lot like Bob Dylan, dumps his comedic persona and returns to serious acting for the first time since the underrated Punch Drunk Love. He does veer into the Sandlerisms every once in a while, but for the most of it delivers a consistent performance. However, the problems lie in characterisation. Binder hopes that the trauma Charlie went through is enough to garner sympathy, but Charlie is too unlikeable to warrant any, and while Cheadle turns his one-note Alan into a fully fleshed person, he is too soft to root for.

Review by Gavin Burke