The Upside of Anger Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)March 16th, 2005
THE UPSIDE OF ANGER
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When Terry Wolfmeyer's (Joan Allen, "The Bourne Supremacy") husband disappears, she furiously begins to belt down the booze. Her high school and college age daughters are disturbed by her behavior, timed when each is beginning to spread their own career and relationship wings. Then neighbor Denny (Kevin Costner, "Open Range"), a retired pro-baseball-player-turned-DJ who's fond of the brewskis, becomes mom's drinking buddy, and her four daughters don't know what to make of things. Yet over time, Denny's presence helps to heal wounds and the Wolfmeyer women experience "The Upside of Anger."
Writer/director Mike Binder (HBO's "The Mind of the Married Man"), who also costars as Denny's womanizing producer Shep, deftly blends comedy and drama until the writer's urge to add a heavy dose of irony at film's end makes it veer off course, undermining the likability of his lead character. Joan Allen and Kevin Costner sound like an odd coupling on paper, but Costner's relaxed playfulness adds just the right amount of warmth to take the edge off of Allen's brittle coolness. They've got chemistry to spare.
Terry is putting her four daughters through a tug-of-war, her anger saying they should hate their dad for running off to Sweden with his secretary while her rational self believes they should maintain a relationship with him. Her daughters, initially understanding of her drinking, are beginning to feel it is getting out of hand. Terry's eldest, Hadley (Alicia Witt, "Two Weeks Notice"), tries to maintain outward decorum while making wry potshots with her sisters. Emily (Keri Russell, TV's "Felicity"), a possible anorexic, is more outwardly combative with mom, especially since she is not being supported in her dream of studying dance at an arts college. Andy (Erika Christensen, "Traffic") is more of the face-rubbing type, accepting a job as a production assistant with Denny's producer over college attendance, then blatantly beginning an affair with the middle-aged lothario. Popeye (Evan Rachel Wood, "The Missing," "Thirteen"), the youngest, is the most supportive and also the most cocooned, in the throes of first love for Gordon (Dane Christensen, Erika's brother), who, it turns out, is gay.
Denny just insinuates himself into the all-female household, having long had a secret crush on his buddy Gray's wife. He's the ultimate proverbial shoulder and Terry's new dependence on alcohol puts them on equal footing. But Denny's also an outside observer to the mother-daughter strains and, in his genuine concern for Terry, is able to work some of the wrinkles out in his own inimitable way. Terry's refusal to acknowledge the relationship as anything but convenient gives Costner his climatic moment (Denny bellowing 'I'm tired of being your bitch!' is one of the film's high points). Things are righted by the day of Hadley's wedding (her engagement luncheon having been the worst of Terry's disastrous drinking displays), which is where this film should have wrapped.
"The Upside of Anger" is always watchable, though, in large part due to its stars. Allen gets to mood swing from slurry rage to sharpened self examination, playing both drama and comedy with ease. She gets the film's biggest belly laugh when she gives an 'if looks could kill' gaze at Shep across the dinner table that literally makes his head explode, an unexpected bit of fantasy that works well. Costner's comfortably uncomfortable in female territory and gives his amusing courtship of Terry an underlying melancholy with his personal sense of failure. The four young actresses, who never convince as siblings, all have their moments with Christensen's malicious manipulation and Wood's sweetness making the strongest impressions. Tom Harper ("What a Girl Wants"), as Hadley's fiance David, gets off one zinger of a line reading with a sotto voce comment on Andy's behavioral motivation.
Binder directs all this chaos with a deft hand, easily transitioning scenes from drama to comedy and back again. He also delivers a first rate production with designer Chris Roope's subtly thematic green and yellow color scheme and Richard Greatex's ("Shakespeare in Love") lovely lensing. Costume designer Deborah Scott ("Titanic") creates a unique identity for each daughter without making them seem like they shop in different countries and aids Allen's arc from sloshed to sober with the lines of her clothing. Alexandre Desplat ("Birth," "Girl with a Pearl Earring"), however, delivers one of his least memorable scores.
"The Upside of Anger" plays a little loose with some of its character motivation, but for the most part it's honest, it's got heart and it's a great return for Costner as sex symbol.
B
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