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Film review

The bright side of dysfunction

The Upside of Anger features an angst-ridden family held together by a bitter, alcoholic mother, but all the negativity seems to bring out the best in the film's actors.

By STEVE PERSALL
Published March 17, 2005

	[Photo: New Line]
	Terry Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen, right), a caustic alcoholic deserted by her husband, teams up with Denny Davies (Kevin Costner), a former major league pitcher who also has a drinking problem, in The Upside of Anger.

Some movie stars have physical traits that set them apart from the rest, like Julia Roberts' smile and Bruce Willis' smirk. It's usually something in the eyes or mouth that signals the star wattage is being turned on.

For Joan Allen, it's her neck: a long, slender, uncommonly expressive anatomical part that she may not be aware she's using. But it's the first thing you notice in her juicier performances, the way it tenses and relaxes, or disappears behind her downturned chin in vulnerable moments. It almost upstages her face.

Her neck muscles get a workout in The Upside of Anger, a meandering family drama that Allen holds together with the laser focus of her performance. She isn't the only good thing about Mike Binder's film, but without Allen, nothing else would matter. We're only three weeks past the Academy Awards and already we have a best actress frontrunner for next year.

Allen plays Terry Wolfmeyer, a suburban Detroit housewife whose husband disappeared at the same time as his Swedish secretary. Terry started drinking heavily, changing from the sweet person we hear about to the bitter, caustic alcoholic we see. She takes out her frustrations on four daughters: "One who hates me and two or three who can go either way," she says.

It's a measure of Terry's pathetic existence that she might find a little salvation with Denny Davies (Kevin Costner), an equally drunken ex-Detroit Tigers pitcher stealing a salary as a talk radio host and signing baseballs stacked in his home. Terry and Denny form a cautiously sexy relationship, not unlike Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson in Terms of Endearment, an uptight mother hen and a rascally former celebrity finding something they lack in each other.

Binder obviously used Terms of Endearment as a template for Terry's relationships with her daughters, employing the same kind of crisply written, passive-aggressive bonds. Each young woman has her conflict with Mom. The eldest, Hadley (Alicia Witt), is pregnant and getting married, something she kept hidden from Terry. Andy (Erika Christensen) skips college to intern at Denny's radio station, where she gets involved with his slimy producer, Shep (played by Binder), a much older man. Emily (Keri Russell) has health issues to keep Terry worrying while "Popeye" (Evan Rachel Wood) detaches herself from everyone except Denny.

That's a lot of angst for one movie to cover, and Binder's original screenplay isn't always up to the task. The movie shifts tones and attention too many times to count, with scenes always working but not always fitting together. One scene with Terry imagining a grisly fate for Shep comes out of left field, and Binder never goes that fantasy route again. But as a character study of middle-age craziness, The Upside of Anger completely satisfies. The baggage lugged around by Terry and Denny - and to a lesser extent Shep - is scripted honestly, if a bit more glibly than ordinary people manage.

The screenplay brings out the best in its actors. Allen, as noted, deftly juggles the varied moods and humors of her role. Binder makes a sitcom role something deeper, and each of Terry's daughters is credible. The film's best surprise is Costner's portrayal of Denny, the kind of work he can do when his ego doesn't get in the way. He never overplays the beer buzz, or seeks to shine Denny's emotional armor. It's his best performance in a decade, one that should silence his career snipers - like me - for a while.

The movie's worst surprise is a climactic twist requiring a leap of Popeye's narration to justify such a development (and the film's lousy title). That's the sign of temporary panic in the screenwriter as his grip on the material weakened. Binder should be congratulated for avoiding a happily-ever-after ending, but he did it at the risk of confounding everything that happened before it.

Grade: B+

Director: Mike Binder

Cast: Joan Allen, Kevin Costner, Erika Christensen, Evan Rachel Wood, Keri Russell, Alicia Witt, Mike Binder

Screenplay: Mike Binder

Rating: R; profanity, sexual situations, brief drug abuse, brief fantasy violence

Running time: 118 min.

[Last modified March 16, 2005, 16:45:43]