Reign Over Me

“Reign Over Me”

USA. 2007. Written and directed by Mike Binder. Starring: Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett Smith, Liv Tyler, Saffron Burrows, Donald Sutherland, Robert Klein, Melinda Dillon, Mike Binder, Jonathan Banks, Rae Allen, and Paula Newsome.

Rating: ★★★

The central fear that drives Mike Binder’s Reign Over Me is the fear of seeking help. Many critics have questioned why Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) does not immediately call for help for his ex-roommate from dental school, Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler) but is it that simple? Would it be easy to write off an old friend as insane and put on a label saying, “You need a shrink”?

That is even more complicated because they have not seen each other since their dental school years and vast emotional rifts has happened in between, particularly in Charlie’s life. Alan heard on the news about what happened to Charlie and how he has been leading a disheveled life far away from his successful former life and career. Stop reading here if you know nothing about this film.

As the trailers are a little too eager to reveal, Charlie’s family was on one of the planes that crashed on 9/11 and has emotionally shut down. So much so that he does not even or perhaps refuses to recognize people and places from his past including Alan as the two meet. But now that chance has brought them together, Alan does not want this opportunity for re-acquaintance to slip by.

This theme of the willingness to acknowledge brokenness is one that writer/director Mike Binder has explored in his past movies like The Upside of Anger. And like that previous film, his story wisely avoids raising its voice more than it is comfortable with. Some have stated that the film is making itself more sensationalistic by dealing with 9/11 and that Charlie’s anguish would be no different if his family had died from just another plane crash. But it is more courageous of Binder to tackle the subject in the low-key way that he does, devoid of any political commentary, because when all has been said, it is fundamentally the unnecessary loss of life that hurts most and makes the least sense.

Thus unfolds an effective portrait of these two men who have taken radically different paths but share the same basic apprehension towards something that many of us share: standing up to our problems. It is why Alan shares his conflicted thoughts to a psychiatrist, Angela (Liv Tyler) outside her office building instead of in her office and Charlie rides around in his scooter all the time, has cut all social connections and gets confrontational, sometimes even violently so, when anyone discusses his past. Ultimately, however, as someone who was not part of his pivotal past event, Alan takes it upon himself to be the outsider to which Charlie can finally share and face his own past. Alan finds some liberation, too, in rediscovering some of the fun “guy” activities that all of his academic work and busy family life had prevented him from doing.

All of this provides an acting showcase for Cheadle and particularly Sandler. Cheadle is as good as ever playing a man who tries to help his friend back on his feet without potentially alienating his wife, Janeane (Jada Pinkett Smith) and his kids in the process. Sandler, on the other hand, has finally found the role to express his true dramatic talent. There has always been a streak of hostility and self-destructiveness in Sandler’s comedic roles, and with movies like Punch-Drunk Love and now this one, he shows that he can portray damaged souls as well as anyone.

Unfortunately, Binder has not yet gotten rid of his urge to insert a smarmy character to overstuff his film with unnecessary dramatic conflict and some absurd comedy (as he did in The Upside of Anger where he himself played that role). In this film, it is a peculiar character played by Saffron Burrows who inexplicably comes on to Alan and every time she appears on screen, the story stops to a dead halt and caves into shameless contrivance, even marring the ending a bit. There are some mildly amusing awkward moments involving her but in a film where everything about the two men’s friendship feels so genuine, her character’s very presence, no matter how well the role is acted, is taking up superfluous room.

In the end, however, the movie’s basic message comes through strong and clear, which is the need to humble oneself first before beginning the process of healing. Of course, some will say that that sounds sentimental and any “reasonable” person in the film would just turn someone like Charlie to the mental hospital immediately. This movie asks us to walk a little in Charlie’s shoes before being quick to judge.