The Upside of Anger | | Cast : | Joan Allen, Kevin Costner, Erika Christensen, Evan Rachel Wood, Keri Russell, Alicia Witt | | Director : | Mike Binder | | Studio : | New Line Home Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | , 2005 | | DVD Released Date : | July 26, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 07, 2005 | | Summary | Another Unmarried Woman, More Furious with a Stellar Allen and Costner | Content
 | Showing dimensions she has not been allowed to display before onscreen, Joan Allen gives a fearless and fiercely comic performance as Terry Wolfmeyer, a suburban Detroit wife and mother of four daughters who apparently has been abandoned by her philandering husband. Director and screenwriter (as well as former stand-up comic) Mike Binder - who worked with Allen on 2000's "The Contender" playing her chief-of-staff - provides Allen with quite an explosive, warts-and-all showcase for her considerable acting prowess in this spirited 2005 comedy-drama.
The plot seems to be an amalgam of Paul Mazursky's 1978 breakthrough "An Unmarried Woman", a reverse-angle take on Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", and the quirky, ironic sensibilities of Sam Mendes' "American Beauty". However, the themes that Binder espouses are intriguing in that he explores the unremitting torrent of anger one woman feels toward life when she discovers one day that her husband is gone. As Terry deals with her anger through alcoholic binges and canoodling with Denny, the retired pro baseball neighbor, she emotionally abandons her four daughters against her best efforts.
Played by Alicia Witt, oldest daughter Hadley just graduated college and becomes pregnant by an affable rich boy whom Terry describes as "not intelligent". Former "Felicity" star Keri Russell portrays aspiring ballet dancer Emily, who becomes anorexic and almost as angry as Terry. Evan Rachel Wood, superb in "Thirteen", plays youngest daughter "Popeye" (nicknamed for no explained reason), who provides the narration at the beginning and end through a class video project, while experimenting with drugs and developing a crush on a gay classmate. Rebellious Andy, portrayed by Erika Christensen, decides to get a job as a radio station production assistant rather than going to college. In the most nonchalant manner, she ends up sleeping with Shep Goodman, the sleazy producer who happens to be played by Binder. All four up-and-coming actresses are terrific within the confines of their roles.
However, I have to hand the prize to Kevin Costner, who seems finally freed of the self-absorbed heroic roles he has been playing. In what has to be his most insightful performance since 1988's "Bull Durham", Costner plays Denny with an élan he hasn't displayed in years. It is another baseball player role, but he infuses such humor, resignation and naked emotion into his gone-to-seed character, now a perpetually stoned disc jockey who patiently waits for Terry to see the "upside of anger", that sense of calm one feels in the end after all of the rage has been released. He does have a great moment when he kicks Terry's bathroom door down - rather than a romantic gesture, it summarizes the years of frustration in dealing with her paranoia and bitterness.
I also appreciate how Binder realistically treats their mutual alcoholism as a way of life rather than a TV-movie disease eating away at them. There are certain times when the movie does veer toward triteness, and Binder likes to use fantasy sequences to express unspoken feelings - such as when Shep's head explodes at the dinner table to Terry's satisfaction - which are effective though a little too convenient for my taste. While not in the league of "The Sixth Sense", the much-discussed twist ending really makes the film more a parable about the futility of anger. It's a creative move by Binder, though it obviously prevents him from exploring the true upside of anger since it would mean explaining some story lapses.
Nonetheless, this is Allen's show and she is amazing - whether collecting her husband's belonging with fury much like Jill Clayburgh did in "An Unmarried Woman", reacting with silent disgust as she catches Andy and Shep in bed, spooning hesitantly with Denny, ordering another Bloody Mary in front of her prospective in-laws or decking Shep twice at Hadley's wedding. The DVD includes the standard ingredients - eight deleted scenes that were understandably excised, a rather lengthy making-of featurette at over thirty minutes (although I was amazed to discover most of the film was shot in London to keep down costs), and an alternate audio commentary track by Allen and Binder, which is alternately insightful and self-congratulatory. There are also some DVD-ROM features like the shooting script. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 07, 2005 | | Summary | Excellent, WELL DONE!! | Content
| Joan Allen plays her very troubled character very well, and this is a perfect role for Costner. The acting is superb in this film. This is one of the best films of the year, not a superficial "chick flick" (ha). Allen's character pours out pain and anguish, yet struggles in her own unique way to try to solve her problems and the problems in her family.
You need to see this picture! |
| Rating | | | Date | August 06, 2005 | | Summary | Near-Perfection | Content
| I wasn't really sure if I would like this, but one deep breath and 3 dollars later I sat back and took a chance with it. I had the same experience with this movie as I did with "Million Dollar Baby." The first 15 minutes really didn't do anything for me. We meet the characters, who are seemingly going nowhere in both their lives or the plot...but then your patience comes very rewarded.
The basic outline is Terry (Joan Allen, a real treasure) has realized that her husband has left her and their 4 daughters, likely with his secretary to Sweden. Bitter and depressed, she drinks her life down, but not as an alcoholic (there are no drunk sequences at all). Instead, she's just confused and angry, and needs a good chaser to mend some hurt feelings.
The other star of the movie is Kevin Costner in a superb performance and Denny Davies, a former Detroit Tigers player, who's drinking buddy is now gone, so he spends his aimless days with Terry and the dysnfunctional family. Between these two people is a connection of bittersweet romance, but certainly with heavy baggage along for the ride.
The four daughters (Alicia Witt, Erika Christiansen, Keri Russell, Evan Rachel Wood) each have wonderfully-drawn supporting roles. Their stories are coming-of-age tales, each with their won carefully-crafted traits. Oldest daughter Hadley is in college with a somewhat-hateful relationship with her mother, but also copes with a fiance and a pregnancy. Andy has no dreams of college, but instead works for Denny's sleazy producer. Emily dreams of becoming a dancer, which has no place in Terry's philosophies of life. And "Popeye" falls for a vague teenager, plus expresses a keen knack for documenting projects and themes...as well as the plot.
I love how these characters verbally commnicate their frustrations with each other, but somehow there is unspoken tension between everybody. Joan Allen is the main character, and does an Oscar-worthy job, but every one of Kevin Costner's lines put a big old smile on my face and often got a huge laugh out of me. This is defintely Costner's best acting since the early 90s with "Dances With Wolves" and "JFK."
The daughters all get enough screen-time to appreciate and become fascinated with their twists on the story.
I do have a couple of negatives that I felt during this movie. First off, the aforementioned opening scenes could've used a little more life in them. When I compare the movie's final minutes with the opening scenes, I'm confused where the life in this movie suddenly bursted from. My attention was literally gripped out of nowhere.
Also, I do feel that in the 3 years that encompass this movie, not much really changes. I find huge differences in my life within a couple of months, but the attitudes and beliefs of these characters don't change much within a couple of years. Terry is as furious with her husband's in the beginning until about 15 minutes remain in the movie. Denny Davies is already a little bit of a wandering fool with a good heart, but he doesn't really develop much. The daughters experience the most change (pregnancy, love, sickness, bonding)...but instead of it being a gradual process, the situation kind of changes out of nowhere.
However, because Mike Binder creates such enthralling personalities and has a gentle tone to the movie, it was very easy for me to absorb the sudden changes. Binder has such minimal direction here that the slightest touches can go unnoticed. For example, instead of a quick-cut and having a cop-out title card say "4 Months Later," we get a wonderful blur from the Fall leaves to the snowy roads of Winter.
"The Upside of Anger" needed a little more time to develop and needed to give us a better opener. However, with such colorful characters, dark humor (Terry imagining Denny's producer head explode is priceless), and genuine emotions being presented here..."The Upside of Anger" is a very moving film. When it picks up and gets a hold of your attention, it won't let go until the very end - and that is something special! |
| Rating | | | Date | August 05, 2005 | | Summary | The Upside of Anger | Content
| The Upside of Anger features Kevin Costner, as former baseball player or that is what we are supposed to assume. And this movie pairs him iwht Joan Allen who plays a dirvoced/single mom, of teenage girls, or girls that are in their early 20's. In the movie Denny Davies (Kevin Costner) who was a baseball player, but now is a radio show host, on WRIF, and is a neighbor to Terry Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen), and her kids are Andy Wolfmeyer (Erika Christensen), Emily Wolfmeyer (Keri Russel), Hadley Wolfmeyer (Alicia Witt), Popeye Wolfmeyer (Evan Rachel Wood) and Grey Wolfmeyer (Danny Webb), who almost all live with them mom, she spends the day trying to raise the teens/adults, and Denny would talk about almsot everything on the show, expect for baseball, and he even gets one of the girls a job, working as a producer, and that would be Andy, and before you know it, she is hooked up to his producer, and a proucer of another show Shef (Mike Binder), even through her Momther doesn't approve of this, and what Mom would approve of her daughter going out with somebody that is way older then her daughter? |
| Rating | | | Date | August 05, 2005 | | Summary | The Downside of a Flawed Premise | Content
| Despite great performances, this film is a dismal portrait of an unlikable character. We are told that Terry's husband has gone to Sweden with his secretary, and that for 3 years, never contacted his family (wife and 4 teenage to adult girls). We are told that Terry was "sweet" before this event, and has changed. What we see is a manipulative control freak with a bad drinking habit, and one must suspect that the seeds of this were always there.
I find the biggest flaw is the basic premise of the film, which I can't mention because it would be a spoiler. I had a nagging feeling throughout the film that something didn't make sense, and in reflecting on the story after seeing the film, I realized that I had been duped, and that the very clever twist ending was a actually a silly one. There would have been too many unanswered questions for the plot to unfold as it does.
Joan Allen is superb as Terry, but it is hard to have sympathy for her, even though she asks for compassion in her time of need. Kevin Costner is also excellent as Denny Davies, Terry's booze buddy turned lover, an ex-baseball star with a radio talk show, and a beer for breakfast type of guy. Yes, the liquor runs like a river in this film, but the dialogue is often weak, and many scenes seem unresolved. As the daughters, Erika Christensen, Evan Rachel Wood, Alicia Witt and Keri Russell all do their parts beautifully.
"The Upside of Anger" was written and directed by Mike Binder, who is also plays Shep, Denny's producer. Shep is a bit of a reprobate, but gives Terry an earful of truth at a wedding party, and has some of the best scenes in the film. The score by Alexander Desplat is lovely with some nostalgic songs included, like Neil Diamond's "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Now." DVD extras include deleted scenes, and commentary. Total running time is 118 minutes.
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