PLOT: A high-powered, acid-tongued, suburban American woman freaks out on her four daughters and a drunken neighbour after her husband abruptly disappears from the family home.
Mike Binder's The Upside Of Anger, a searing family drama, is a serious comedy that Binder wrote and directed as a way of healing his own wounds in the divorce of his parents. In doing so, however, he inflicts a lot of pain on the rest of us.
This is the story of a well-to-do American family thrust into the abyss when the man of the house suddenly disappears without a trace, presumedly to run off with his sexy Swedish secretary, who has also abruptly left town. The mother, acid-tongued and as often cruel as she is drunk, turns her venom on her four daughters, who range from their mid-teens to their twenties.
By the time the film reaches its implausible and even ridiculous conclusion, our Medea-like mom seems capable of killing the kids -- at least with her caustic words and tough love. The point seems to be to examine in detail the nature of betrayal and the anger it engenders in those who fancy themselves as victims.
This is one of those films with a math problem, where the sum of its parts do not add up. But what parts! What core performances! What a privilege to see Joan Allen in action as a woman scorned! But, while my generous rating is due to Allen & company, The Upside Of Anger is a decidedly mixed experience.
On one extreme, Binder drives us nuts with his undisciplined, even random storytelling, not to mention his unwelcome on-screen performance as a radio producer and smarmy suitor for one of Allen's daughters.
At the other extreme, Binder invests Allen with one of the great roles of an already illustrious career. In individual scenes, she wrenches us out of complacency with a bold approach that skins her character alive and peels her down to a psychological essence that is pure, distilled humanity. It is a remarkable thing to witness.
Adding grace notes to Allen's symphony of emotional hell is Kevin Costner. In playing a drunken neighbour who comes sniffing around Allen like a junkyard dog after the husband has gone, Costner is fearless. Overweight, unshaven, slovenly, he looks like hell. He references his past as an actor who portrays baseball players -- because the part is a former Detroit Tigers baseball star gone to pot -- and then sends it up with a wry twist.
Most importantly, for the first time since Dances With Wolves, Costner relies on subtle gestures and the fewest words possible to convey the transitions in his character, in this case from loser to empowered friend and lover. That way, his one emotional outburst is explosive and effective.
Casting the four daughters, Binder has also chosen wisely. Evan Rachel Wood (Thirteen) is the youngest, also our narrator and arguably the most "mature" person in the movie. Erika Christensen (Traffic), Keri Russell (TV's Felicity) and Alicia Witt (Two Weeks Notice) round out the foursome, each of them with a unique troublesome personality and niche in the melodrama.
Unfortunately, of course, all that acting effort is for naught if you believe, as you should, that the film's parts should all fit together and add up to something grand. And they don't.
(This film is rated 14-A)
More Movie Reviews
