Review of The Upside of Anger (2005) by Michael M — 11 Jun 2007

The latest romantic-comedy available to rent and own on DVD is Mike Binder's 'The Upside of Anger'. I meant to go see it while it was still playing in the movie theaters because of all the positive buzz critics gave it, but somehow I missed it. When it finally came out at Blockbuster I rented it expecting a very good film, and I have to say I was a little disappointed. I can't understand why Roger Ebert gave it 4-stars along with many of the other film critics. It's a good movie, but nothing Oscar worthy (except maybe for Joan Allen's terrific performance). I guess since it came from Mike Binder, who was the creator of HBO's short-lived but nonetheless brilliant sit-com 'The Mind of the Married Man', I thought the film would be a tad more raunchy and laugh-out-loud hysterical. Although 'The Upside of Anger' garners some funny moments, it never reaches to point of hilarity. 'The Upside of Anger' to my dismay turned out to be your typical chick-flick, but at least is was a superior chick flick thanks mostly to Joan Allen.

The movie centrals around a middle-aged single mother of four beautiful daughters, Terry Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen). As her youngest daughter Popeye (Evan Rachel Wood - Thirteen) narrates, her mother used to be a kind, generous and caring woman, but ever since her husband left her and the s for his Swedish assistant, she's become an angry and bitter woman. Now that the man of the house is gone, Terry is always pessimistic and whenever she gets a chance. She takes it out on Popeye as well as her other three daughters; Emily (Keri Russell) a high school aged aspiring ballet dancer with an eating disorder, Andy (Erika Christensen - Traffic), a just-out-of high school wild who doesn't want to go to college, and Hadley (Alicia Witt - Urban Legend) a recent college graduate who's getting married to a classmate and pregnant with his child. Terry is going crazy with all the different problems her children have, and not having a man around the house. During the course of the film she starts to take a liking to a man in the neighborhood, Denny (Kevin Costner) who's a mostly-drunk retired baseball player with a bad radio show with low-ratings. Terry starts to get romantically involved with Denny, while Denny's boss Shep (Mike Binder - the writer/director of the film) starts to take a liking to Terry's daughter Andy. There's a lot of anguish and arguments through-out the film surrounding Terry's mission to be happy in the estrogen filled emotional roller coaster 'The Upside of Anger' is.

'The Upside of Anger' sometimes falls into the cliché romantic-comedy storyline, but for the most part manages to be sort of inventive. Joan Allen gives an outstanding performance as the angry mother Terry that might just earn her an Oscar nod next year. Kevin Costner may just give his best performance since 'Dances with Wolves' as the silly, ignorant but lovable Denny, and Mike Binder is extremely witty for the limited screen time his character has. Evan Rachel Wood gives the finest performance out of all of the daughters, while Keri Russell is very good also but Erika Christensen and Alicia Witt are disappointing in a way. Mike Binder does a decent job scripting and directing this motion picture, but nothing really Oscar worthy. I'd say 'The Upside of Anger' is definitely more enjoyable if your a female rather then a male. If you take the good and take the bad of 'The Upside of Anger' and end up calculating it, the movie ends up being good. I recommend it as a rental, because for four bucks it's probably worth it. Grade: B-.