"Reign Over Me" (2007) - Movie Review

It is really surprising to see only director Mike Binder identifying Adam Sandler’s talent from “Punch Drunk Love”. Maybe there are lots of financial and personal constraints attached to opting a more serious role by Sandler, but he nails down the character of Charlie Fineman in “Reign Over Me”. Grief does not come in installments most of the times and hits any one very hard that it is no more possible for them to get up from the pain.

Charlie Fineman lost his whole family in the disaster of 9/11 and his depression is immeasurable that when his college roommate Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) spots him after several years, he is not able to or does not want to remember him. One can only imagine the pain Charlie goes through. His in laws does not understand his outbursts. They want the only member of the family left by their daughter. Charlie finds it hard to come out of the tormented past and seeing their in laws reminds him more of it. He needs some one new and some one who does not judge him for how he appears or behaves on certain instances. Alan is the right candidate who is still finding it hard to open up with his wife even after two kids.

The film is predictable experienced drama plot. I had an idea on where it all leads to. Even then, it is portrayed interesting enough to keep the viewers occupied and entertained. Alan is trying to find he free of being tied upon completely by the marital responsibilities. Charlie is without any attachment and apart from helping him; Alan has a new friend to be single again, if only for a while. The film is a classic school book example of a part indie part commercial drama to be handled. Unfortunately when everything is going completely engulfing the viewers, it dips into unnecessary court room melodrama in the final twenty minutes. The movie if had been reduced by those twenty would have been the impressive story about two individuals who influence each other, but instead they want the viewers to have more and more sympathy for Charlie. This definitely proved to be fatal for the movie.

Apart from that total mishandling of the story during the final instances, the movie belongs to Sandler. The sequence where he finally confides with Alan is a piece of attention to all the performers in the industry of what he is capable of. It is so sad to see him play the comedy roles most of the times, but he has the potential of an amazing character artist. If only Hollywood uses him further more in a proper way to bring the best out of him.

“Reign Over Me” is an extremely emotional movie and they had the beautiful vase painted and carefully crafted. They took it to the highest building showcasing it all the way and then dropped it straight from the top floor.

The movie also misses the relationship tension in between Alan and his wife Janeane. I guess it was not show cased intensely mainly to not over shadow the main plot. The film definitely picturizes the internal pressure of Charlie and if may be for those couple of hours, the viewers get a small portion of those. It also puts out the question of what can be done for him. While his in laws are trying to help him, what can be the consolation to a soul who got terribly beaten by life? The film may not provide all those been answered but it is a trade off in between two friends to share those and get a life out of it.

Adam Sandler is out there and he needs to be utilized properly. And when I think about it, I remember the trailer I saw for his next movie, “I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry” and the plot line from IMDB is “Two straight, single Brooklyn firefighters (Sandler, James) pretend to be a gay couple in order to receive domestic partner benefits.” While the movie may be extremely funny, wake up Hollywood, Sandler has more than that.