The Upside of Anger

Once every so often a movie comes along that hits all the right notes with its audience. It has just the right amount of each element that makes a great film and then kicks it up a notch with more.

Mike Binder has done all this with his new film, The Upside of Anger. Upside of Anger opens at a scene from the end of a movie; a scene that stays in the audience's mind, making us trying to guess its cause all the way through the movie. We meet Terry Wolfmeyer, a middle aged woman with four daughters who is trying to keep their and her own life in balance. Terry's husband has just recently left the family causing Terry to spiral into alcohol and bitterness. Along comes Denny Davies, an ex-baseball player, current radio show host, and Terry's neighbor. He too, is a fan of the drink, and strikes a friendship with Terry along with a fatherly role for her daughters. At its root, it's Terry's story about how she deals with the continuous growing of her relationships, of her daughters, and of herself.

Mike Binder, the writer and director, has a great way of showing the lives of all his characters. He is able to make this movie just as life really is; its funny, depressing, uplifting, bittersweet, and sometimes tragic. He seems to be able to capture real life on camera and display it with all its truth and realism. The writing is completely intelligent, hilarious writing is mixed with scenes of great emotion. Binder never relies on action or dialogue that will cue laughter or tears; it comes naturally through the writing. It works differently for every person in the audience.

Joan Allen is fabulous as the angry mother, Terry. Her performance contains each the real emotion of a mother with all that she is dealing with. She plays it with vigor that strikes that fear in us that we all know mothers can emit, but we also see her lighter funny side. Kevin Costner does very well as Denny, who, surprise surprise, is a baseball player. His performance is hilarious as the washed up player who beams an empathetic hippie attitude. Costner, in his first good and well-written role in a while, is a relief to have. Also hilarious is Director, Mike Bender's Shep, Denny's radio show producer. The four daughters also add four different personalities to the family that interact very nicely.

The Upside of Anger is a wonderfully acted movie, and what's more, it is superbly written. It captures a true essence of family life. And, while its hilarious, it's a refreshing kind of humor that is very mature and not based on the stupidity that many people think we want to see. Mike Binder is successful at making a movie about the characters and about life that actually does a good job at representing both things. Upside of Anger gets 5 stars (out of 5)

I saw this when it premiered at the Sundance film festival (although the director & actors didn't bother to come to our screening), and I enjoyed it. Kevin Costner plays a baseball player, but the movie is not about baseball; it deals with the anger the lead character feels when her husband disappears, along with his secretary. Joan Allen plays the wife of the missing man, and is the mother to four daughters, played very well by Evan Rachel Wood, Keri Russel, Erika Christensen, and Alicia Witt. Joan Allen was marvelous. We laughed many times when she glared in anger at different characters in the movie (and we were glad she wasn't mad at US! LOL...) I have not been a big fan of Kevin Costner in recent years, but thought that he did a great job as the man who helps Joan Allen's character pick up the pieces. The writer/director also has a role in the film as an older man who dates Joan Allen's daughter. I thought the message of the film was delivered well, and it was an entertaining story. There is a twist at the end that I truly did not see coming. I don't think it spoiled the movie, it was just unexpected.

I've always admired Kevin Costner's laconic screen presence, in BULL DURHAM, TIN CUP, even DANCES WITH WOLVES, JFK and PERFECT WORLD. Now no longer leading-man handsome, he's developed into a first- rate character actor, and as a washed-up, alcoholic ex-baseball player-turned radio talk-show host, Costner offers company and comfort to Joan Allen as a drinking buddy in the bittersweet THE UPSIDE OF ANGER. Mike Binder's superb film about an abandoned wife of four teenage girls should qualify as one of this year's best films. But because it was released so early, did only respectable business, and isn't a vehicle for an over-hyped box-office attraction on magazine covers now, it will probably only get the respect of word-of-mouth. I saw this engrossing, deeply wonderful film when it opened last winter, and made up my mind that I would have to have the DVD as soon as it became available.

Joan Allen, as Terry Wolfmeyer dazzles us in a performance that is both comically and dramatically masterful as the drunken mother seemingly at war with her four beautiful daughters. Terry's rage over her husband's abandonment of her and their children, is a mean-spirited rebuke to her daughters, who try with great patience to survive their mother's theatrical bitterness. But mama has given them the gift of her humor, and I think it's what saves these girls. There's a look that Joan Allen gives when one of her daughters is doing exactly what she doesn't want them to be doing. What it is they are doing to upset their mother is always in doubt because she's never really making rational sense. She's only filtering her displeasure through the rheumy eyes of her last cocktail. There's a scene at the family dining room where Hadley, her eldest daughter (the ever fascinating Alica Witt, who should be starring in her own movies), announces she's pregnant with her second baby. Allen was none-to-happy that her daughter opted for marriage and motherhood over a career, and her beady- eyed stare at her daughter's latest announcement of her grand-motherhood is a comic masterpiece. But when Allen finally can no longer avoid facing her crippling anger, Allen breaks your heart. Having never had an outlet for her comic abilities, she's surprises you with her skill. That she walks this fine tightrope between both extremes says much for her talent as an actor.

Finally back to Costner. Denny Davies might have been a dangerous character for Costner to revisit. Afterall, he's played washed up or played out sports characters before. His career has suffered a very precipitous fall following the media-created debacle of his so-called grandiose ego in WATERWORLD, and the opportunities have been few and far between since then. But Denny is a rich character any actor would love to sink their teeth into, and Costner embraces Denny's humanity with consummate ease. Discovering his neighbor has been abandoned by her husband, Denny offers to keep her company while they drink. They warily circle each other during these boozy afternoons of watching television, drinking and not saying much to each other. And when that changes, you see the transition from friend to lover mainly through the eyes of Denny. When she first proposes they sleep together, it's Denny who chickens out at the last minute. But as their relationship develops, you see Denny reach out to Terry's girls in a way that is sympathetic but also gives them room to accept and then love him in return. This is a terribly important test for Denny. So when the youngest of the girls finally asks him if he plans to marry Terry, Denny comes to understand that the girls have welcomed him into the family. Costner is sensational in this film, but he keeps it all so low-key, always keeping the focus on Allen's character, and he ends up giving her the film--and rightfully so, I think. This is a gift to Allen. Costner recognizes this, and I think the movie is all the better for his act of generosity. This is a performance that people will talk about for years to come. Like Jeff Bridges and Dennis Quaid, Costner is one of our best screen actors, and it's great to see him in a role that is truly worthy of his fine talent.

Each of the daughter's is skillfully rendered by Erka Christensen, Evan Rachel Wood, Keri Russel and Alicia Witt. These young women look and act like siblings. Auteur Mike Binder has given himself a role as Denny's radio producer, who is romancing one of the daughters, much to her mother's disgust. He's funny, pathetic, and just a bit creepy as a Romeo with romantic ideas way above his station!

Binder's fine script gives this ensemble film the ballast that keeps you laughing and crying. He's found the emotional core in these character's lives, and the pace of the film, which clocks in at just under two hours, provides a sense of completeness.

Ultimately it is Costner's generosity as an actor that so disarms the viewer. In every shot, Joan Allen's Terry is the riveting center, with Costner playing to her every moment without stealing attention away from her. That earns my whole- hearted respect.

THE UPSIDE OF ANGER should be seen and savored by anyone who cares deeply about moves with something to say about the human condition. Binder's adroit direction makes this a film to set beside TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, AS GOOD AS IT GETS, and Lasse Hallstrom's vastly underrated SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT. Finally it's such a pleasure to see two pros such as Allen and Costner hit it right out of the park!

I had no idea of the plot other than Kevin Costner was a retired baseball player who drank and smoked weed. I would see just about anything with Kevin in it. It seems to me that the director was trying to put too many different facets of emotion in the film... abandonment, grieve, anger, despair, self pity, humor, hatred, cynicism. As a divorced mother of six, some of the lines "hit too close to home" so that tells me that the essence of the pain was captured. I am still thinking about the ending which really surprised me. I can't even begin to imagine how a wife who felt as she did could handle that. All in all it was a good movie, and I recommend it to anyone who has lost control of their anger in trying to deal with disappointment and resentment.

After her performance in "The Ice Storm" it is no surprise that Joan Allen could carry a movie like "The Upside of Anger". Nor was it a surprise that she and Alicia Witt could beautifully play off each other in their confrontational mother and daughter roles. What did surprise was that the film featured equally strong performances from the other members of the cast. Even writer/director Mike Binder does a fine "on-screen" job as a slimy but not entirely unsympathetic radio producer. Kevin Costner would be wise to stay with this type of role (and with comedy) instead of big-budget epic stuff.

The casting of Witt with Erika Christensen, Evan Rachel Wood, and Keri Russell as the four sisters was inspired. It was refreshing just to see a film family that looked enough alike physically to actually be related to each other. Since Christensen looks so much like Julia Stiles they could have even added a fifth sister although their resemblance is so strong that it might be confusing. All the subtle birth order distinctions felt right. The oldest (Witt) was the most connected to mom even though it did not appear so on the surface. The second (Christensen-who absolutely glows on the screen) was determined to be different than her older sister. The third (Russell) was the most connected to the father, missed him the most, and had the least understanding of the mother. The youngest (Wood) was way ahead of the curve and the most perceptive character in the film. Watch for all this stuff because it is there, and watch how no matter how down the mother becomes she continues to monitor the welfare of her daughters.

Binder gave into the temptation to use cheesy special effect gimmicks several times (the explosion at the dinner table, the neighborhood transition from summer to winter, the ballet fantasy, and the daughters growing older during the funeral scene). Although done well they seemed out of place. Also Binder should review the Kent State shootings, there were four students killed-not six.

There is a spectacular shot at the wedding. Beginning as an over the shoulder shot of Hadley (Witt) sucking in her "plump" cheeks, the camera pans slightly right and moves toward the wedding party as the focus changes to bring them out of a blur.

The film's ironic twist in the last 15 minutes is borrowed wholesale from "Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice". I particularly liked Wood's beautiful narration which helped clarify the title and theme, necessary (or at least helpful) after this ironic story line twist. She managed to sound both detached and involved, it is actually the voice-over for her broadcasting class project. When we are suddenly forced to reevaluate everything that has gone before in what we thought was just an interesting comedy, Wood steps in and steers us to internalize the theme. They go out on a shot of Wood looking up from her Mac and smiling. Amazing.

This is the best of Binder's writing: "Anger and resentment can stop you in your tracks. That's what I know now. It needs nothing to burn but the air and the life that it swallows and smothers. It's real though, the fury, even when it isn't. It can change you, turn you, mold you and shape you into something you're not. The only upside of anger then, is the person you become, hopefully someone that wakes up one day and realizes they're not afraid of its journey. Someone that knows that the truth is, at best, a partially told story. That anger, like growth, comes in spurts and fits and in its wake leaves a new chance of acceptance and the promise of calm".

"The Upside of Anger" is one of those rare films that I believe everyone should make an effort to connect with, doing so will make you a better person. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.