Reign over Me Film Review

by Kam Williams

Bittersweet Buddy Flick Exploits Emotional Aftermath of 9/11

There are many people who say they're not ready to watch a 9/11-themed movie. Consequently, they've already missed out on several excellent cinematic tributes, including World Trade Center, Flight 93, and Saint of 9/11.

If you're one of those who has previously been hesitant, then you probably want to pass on Reign over Me, too. It's the first thoroughly fictional feature film to revolve around the event, though it does so in a comparatively oblique fashion. Relentlessly depressing in tone, this bittersweet buddy flick focuses on the toll the tragedy has taken on one Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler), a defrocked dentist whose wife and three daughters were passengers on one of the planes commandeered by hijackers that fateful day.

Not surprisingly, since the once gregarious Charlie's life was ripped apart, he's been paranoid, emotionally fragile and generally unable to function. The picture's point of departure is 2006, where we find the grieving widower unemployed, in deep denial, and avoiding anyone who might remind him of his loss, including his wife's parents, Jonathan (Robert Klein) and Ginger (Melinda Dillon)

Disheveled, unshaven, and looking like a young Bob Dylan, he squanders his days aimlessly zigzagging around Manhattan on a motorized scooter, mumbling to himself in an introspective haze. Evenings, he retreats to his darkened apartment to listen to obscure rock tunes on vinyl records while playing Shadows of the Colossus, a video game whose object is to slay an army of evil, mythical giants in order to revive a dead girl.

Everything changes for Charlie after a chance encounter with Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) who had been his roommate during dental school. The two haven't seen each other in ages and Alan is shocked to find Charlie in such a pathetic state.

Despite the fact that he is currently dealing with his own midlife crisis which has left him unable to communicate with his wife (Jada Pinkett Smith) in a meaningful manner, Alan altruistically decides to take a personal interest in his friend's well-being.

So, ignoring his spouse, his daughters and his practice, except for the blackmailing patient (Saffron Burrows) who's hellbent on seducing him, Dr. Johnson starts chaperoning Charlie on late-night jaunts ranging from a gig as a drummer in a heavy metal rock band to a Mel Brooks movie marathon in Greenwich Village.

Alan exhibits extraordinary patience with Charles, as if this profoundly disturbed individual deserves special dispensation to act a fool just because he lost his family on 9/11. Everybody learns the hard way that enabling only allows the spoiled and self-destructive behaviors to degenerate into worse, the trashing of Alan's office and pointing a pistol at the police.

Eventually, a line in the asphalt is drawn and he's forced to see a shrink (Liv Tyler), who snap-diagnoses Fineman to be suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. But is it a sufficiently severe case to warrant an involuntary commitment to the loony bin, or will a little TLC from loved ones do the trick? Fortunately, Judge Raines (Donald Sutherland), exhibiting all the wisdom of Solomon, is on the bench to decide.

Reign over Me begs to be appreciated as a cerebral, character-driven meditation on the psyche of America in the aftermath of the terror attacks, but it resorts far too frequently to the staples of the Adam Sandler formula to be considered of any more substance or consequence than The Waterboy, Happy Gilmore or even Billy Madison.

Here, instead of relying on a protagonist's mental retardation to rationalize his familiar lowbrow brand of humor, Sandler exploits 9/11 to free his character to launch politically-incorrect bile in the direction of Latinos, gays and any other easy targets unfortunate enough to cross his path.

A meanspirited, frivolous, brutally-dull, pretentious indulgence in bigotry and sophomoric behavior in the name of Al-Qaeda. Did I mention brutally-dull? Consider that fair warning.

Fair (1 star)
Rated R for profanity, sexuality and homophobic slurs.
Running time: 124 minutes
Studio: Sony Pictures

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