Reign Over Me

Reign Over Me is the story of two former dental school roommates who meet up more than a decade later and find that even though they appear to be in much different mental states have more in common than either could have supposed.

Don Cheadle stars a Dr. Alan Johnson, a successful New York City dentist looking for more from his life. His gorgeous wife Janeane, Jada Pinkett Smith, is loving and kind, but somewhat suffocating and his two daughters are smart and respectful, but needy. Alan is looking for his own space or an at least some sort of outlet of his own, but does not know how to articulate this need. Than one day Alan comes across his former roommate, Dr. Charlie Fineman played by Adam Sandler, walking on the street. Fineman also practiced in New York until he lost his wife, three daughters, and family dog to the 9-11 terrorist attacks, his family was on the plane from Boston. When Johnson approaches Fineman on the street he does not recognize Johnson and appears distant and lost. As Johnson attempts to rekindle their friendship it becomes aware that the tragic loss of his family has taken a terrible toll on Fineman who is living out his life in a self medicated haze. He plays drums for a small punk band and when he is not playing live or in his studio he is remodeling his kitchen, shopping for vinyl record, or playing video games. Johnson wants to help his friend out of this slump, cope with his loss and move on, but Fineman does not want to be help. Reign Over Me is the story of how these two once close friend re-connect and help each other get more out of life.

It is difficult to review a movie that does more or less what you expect it to. Going into this movie I expected Cheadle to be his ever solid reliable self, Sandler to make the role work in a way no one else could and together for them to act out a powerful story; check, check, and check. I don’t know if it is possible to make a perfect 8, but that what this movie was. There were no glaring flaws, it wasn’t too long, or boring, the characters were believable and relatable, no one tried to do too much or fell short. From top to bottom this was a very good movie, just not great. Cheadle is a rock, when you cast Don to a role you give him the script and walk away, he doesn’t need assistance. Sandler has the ability to take an abstract idea and make it real. Before this role I would have no idea how to describe someone that is coping with this kind of pain, but now I can say “…you know like the way Sandler acted in Reign Over Me, that’s how they are dealing with it”. He manages to make his quirky and big personality work. He even manages to work in the signature Sandler fits of rage.

With these two doing the bulk of the heavy lifting all nothing else is required is that Director Mike Binder tell a good story and make the pieces around them work. While Binder may not be a household name, I mean beside the greatness that is Blankman, yeah that’s right freakin Damon Wayans in Blankman. After this movie his phone will ring once or twice, not that it wasn’t after Blankman. True with leads like Sandler and Cheadle what more do you have to do than point the camera and shoot, but he does uses some very interesting camera angles, a lot of low angles looking up, and some lighting tricks that accentuate the performances. As for the other pieces, while I was hoping Jada would be on screen more and have the opportunity to stretch her legs she does all that is asked of her, and my goodness the woman is good looking. Saffron Burrow, plays Sandler’s potential love interest and is also a little crazy herself, manages to sell all the scenes that she is in without being very sexual even though her character comes across as someone with some sexual angst. Liv Tyler who plays Dr. Ashley Oakhurst, Fineman's psychiatrist manages to deliver a respectable performance. Even Donald Sutherland shows up and holds a couple of scenes for good measure.

Reign Over Me is a really good about very real people coping with hard issues. It is nice to see about movie deal with hard life stuff without being melodramatic. Cheers to Binder, Cheadle, and Sandler, well done.
GRADE – B+