Adam Sandler may be more familiar to cinemagoers for his enraged caricatures and zany humour, but in Reign Over Me he finds his true calling with a subtle, anguished performance; at times intense, at times almost heartbreakingly subdued.
Sandler’s Charlie Fineman is an empty man. Having lost his wife and young daughters during 9/11, he has withdrawn into himself. Keeping the world at bay with his dishevelled clothes and evasive demeanour, Fineman finds solace in the monotony of video games and isolation from all but the most basic of human contact.
Following a chance meeting with former college roommate Alan Johnson (Academy Award nominee for Hotel Rwanda, Don Cheadle), Fineman rekindles an alliance that slowly but surely brings him back into the world.
Johnson wants to help Fineman, though he too is troubled. Despite a seemingly perfect life, a successful dental practice, an erratic though devoted wife (Jada Pinkett Smith), children and wealth, he cannot shake the feeling that somehow, something is missing.
Having recently been falsely accused of sexual harassment by a jilted dental patient (Saffron Burrows), Johnson sees Fineman as aiding in his own renewal. As the two men hit town and finally live a little, they once again discover what it means to be happy.
And yet Fineman still cannot exorcise his demons, as an unwillingness to deal with the past stalks his every moment. When he inevitably cracks, Fineman’s outburst lands him in the type of trouble that could not only lose him his best friend, but also the right to a normal life that, deep down, he now craves.
Reign Over Me’s impressive cast is rounded off by Golden Globe winner Donald Sutherland and The Lord of the Rings’s Liv Tyler. It is directed/ written by award winning filmmaker Mike Binder.
In tackling perhaps the single most shocking day in recent history, Binder has created a moving and at times very funny drama, handled with passion and absolute sensitivity.
Reign Over Me is not a ‘9/11 film’, it’s a relationship rites of passage between two men who have journeyed to crisis point and are in desperate need of each other to find their way home.
The film features a topical soundtrack that cleverly integrates as well as compliments events onscreen. The film’s title actually comes from The Who song Love, Reign O’er Me. This DVD release includes an extended ‘jam session’ with Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle, along with a photo montage and making of featurette.
This is the picture for Adam Sandler doubters. Though he was apparently terrified of the responsibility of such a role, he needn’t have been. Prepare to be caught unawares as the normally comic actor enriches the screen in a near revelatory performance.
You will shed a tear by the time the credits roll, and, as Fineman himself discovers, this might not be such a bad thing.
Reign Over Me available to rent and buy on DVD and Blu-Ray from 20th August
CAST
Adam Sandler
Don Cheadle
Jada Pinkett Smith
Liv Tyler
Saffron Burrows
Donald Sutherland
DIRECTOR
Mike Binder
TIME
119 mins
POSTED...
Fri 17 Aug 2007 at 1:23pm
