Reign Over Me (2007)

I talked about this movie in detail on an episode of the podcast I'm on (Rob and Nate Record a Podcast) so I won't go into much detail on it here. 'Reign Over Me' is a dramady from 2007 where Adam Sandler plays Dr. Charlie Fineman a dentist who lost his family in the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and as consequence went into a long, denial laden mental breakdown. By chance Fineman's collage roommate Dr. Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) runs into Charlie on the street, and by virtue of his being someone who knew him from before he had his family, the two are able to connect, and eventually help each with difficulties in their respective lives.

There is both some effective comedy and some effective drama here, and the whole thing is better then I thought it would be which left me a little frustrated, because I simply can not quite get beyond the fact that this is Adam Sandler's 9/11 widower movie and that simply shouldn't exist. Perhaps more conventional casting may have allowed this movie to work better for me, though the very fact of Sandler's being in the movie is the chief thing that makes it memorable, though Don Cheadle is quite good in this. The film has a surprisingly good supporting cast including Liv Tyler and Donald Sutherland, their is some solid stuff in it, particularly one scene of Sandler breaking down in the presence of Cheadle, however Sandler still does a variant on his 'Waterboy' voice through the whole film and I just can't get past that. There is also a subplot here involving Saffron Burrows that is a memorably odd narrative choice, why did writer director Mike Bender put that in here? Better then in it has a right to be, for the most part rather well constructed, ultimately I enjoyed it but still feel a little conflicted about that. **1/2