Even though he's in his early 40s now, Adam Sandler easily could have continued playing Happy Gilmore or Little Nicky or any of the other characters in his arsenal of arrested development. That's what made him famous - that's what made him popular. But he's shown a surprising amount of wisdom in deciding to grow up on screen as well as off of it, and following more mature roles in "Punch-Drunk Love" and "Spanglish," "Reign Over Me" represents his meatiest yet.
It's also his most maudlin. Sandler stars as Charlie Fineman, a troubled former dentist who has suppressed the memory of his wife and three daughters, who died in 9/11. Charlie spends his days and nights trolling the streets of Manhattan on his motor scooter, headphones perpetually clamped around his ears to prevent the outside world from shattering his self-imposed solitude.
He runs into his roommate from dental school, Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle), and rejuvenates an old friendship that both men need. Charlie doesn't recognize Alan at first when they meet on the street, but Alan knows Charlie instantly, despite the shaggy mullet Charlie appears to have borrowed from Bob Dylan. The two start spending a ton of time together, to the great annoyance of Alan's wife, with whom he has two daughters (Jada Pinkett Smith, whose character is drawn as a two-dimensional nag).
They play video games, watch Mel Brooks movies and generally act like college kids again. Through their eyes, writer-director Mike Binder reveals a more accurately neighborhoody view of New York than we ordinarily see in films. He also refrains from politicizing or banging us over the head with the significance of Sept.
11 on a citywide or nationwide scale; it's implicit. By focusing on one man's loss, "Reign Over Me" feels more powerfully personal. As Charlie's only friend, Cheadle brings his typical intelligence and nuance to what might have been a dry, straight-man role.
He can elevate anyone's game, and here, he and Sandler share a buoyant chemistry. But the film from Binder, who previously tapped into raw emotions with his piercing 2005 drama "The Upside of Anger," also requires Alan to draw Charlie out of his deep denial, which grows increasingly melodramatic and culminates with a bombastic climax. Charlie doesn't want to see a therapist (Liv Tyler) to discuss the horrific fate that befell his wife and children, and he doesn't want to share in the effusive grief his former in-laws (Robert Klein and Melinda Dillon) expect of him.
His frequent, violent outbursts indicate that he needs to be institutionalized, and whether that's appropriate becomes the movie's eventual, tedious source of conflict. Before that, though, Charlie is too all-over-the-place to grasp completely. Sometimes he's Rain Man, obsessively regurgitating details from his favorite classic rock albums.
Sometimes he's slyly quick-witted, and he gets in a number of affectionate zingers at Alan's expense. And sometimes he's just shut off entirely. You certainly have to appreciate that Sandler wants to stretch in such a fashion, but you also want material that allows him to do so more convincingly.
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