Reign Over Me (***1/2)

? A mild-mannered dentist (Don Cheadle) tries to reconnect with his old college roommate (Adam Sandler), who’s become unhinged since the plane-crash death of his wife and children and seems not to remember him. Written and directed by Mike Binder (The Upside of Anger), who also has a supporting role as an accountant.
+ The brilliant thing about Binder’s script is the way it uses the Sandler character as a way into exploring the dentist’s self-image and his marriage. (It’s a bit like the way Upside of Anger used the flamboyant Kevin Costner character as a window into the bitterness felt by Joan Allen, an abandoned wife.) Compare I Think I Love My Wife, which uses reams of narration to explain the feelings that looks and gestures impart here. Moments like the husband’s unspoken distaste at spending an evening doing a jigsaw puzzle let us in on the small accommodations couples make to each other. But you also see that the wife (Jada Pinkett Smith) is self-aware enough to know that he’s doing it for her, and that she somewhat controlling. And finally, you see that although this is an issue, the marriage is still a good one. Cheadle is at his best here, underplaying opposite Sandler’s showier role. This movie would seem to have no point unless his character can "break through" and help his friend start to heal, to use the jargon of psychotherapy. But I thought that Binder frames the story in a way that makes the tearjerker parts seem honest. Both characters move far enough to make the story interesting, but not so much that it seems manipulative or soppy.
- There’s something slightly unreal about Sandler’s character (though I liked Sandler himself), perhaps that he seems to have dropped about 30 IQ points along with his dental practice, perhaps the overt symbolism of his using headphones to literally shut out the world with classic rock, perhaps that latter-day Phil Spector haircut. Another troubled character, played by Saffron Burrows, sticks around too long, until she feels like just a plot device.
= ***1/2 This reminded me of Good Will Hunting, also about an angry character whose anger holds him back from what other people think he ought to be doing. If you liked that, you’ll probably like this.

IMDB link

reviewed 3/29/07