The Upside of Anger
Review by Clint Morris
It has to rain before the sun can come out again, you have
to have a fight in order to make up, and the coaster has to
go down before it can go up again.
In the case of The Upside of Anger, its characters
have to experience the overpopulated point of rock bottom
before reclaiming their smile at the top of a beaming rainbow.
It’s life, as we all know, and writer/director Mike
Binder seems to have a good grasp on its tumultuous cycle.
The correlation of having to experience rock bottom before
finding your stride again might also be applied to this film’s
co-star.
Kevin Costner hasn’t had a fantastic decade, seems the
over-bloated over-budgeted overwrought Waterworld (1995)
swept his career away in a current and he’s never quite
recovered.
And while some make their comeback by starring in some testing,
ambitious or, in the case of George Lucas (with his “Star
Wars” prequel trilogy), encumbered with special effects,
Costner’s done the opposite: he’s made something
so small and so intimate, that he’s got no choice but
to make sure his acting is finely tuned, because it’s
what people are coming to see.
In this, there’s no eye-patched villain, no super stunts,
no awe-inspiring running of the buffalo sequences and no costume
department to pad up the meagre performances of its cast –
The Upside of Anger is a ‘story’, and purely
that.
Terry Wolfmeyer’s (Joan Allen) husband of twenty years
has just left her. Seeking solace in drinking, she struggles
to keep it together whilst raising four young daughters -
Andy (Alicia Witt), Emily (Keri Russell), Hadley (Erika Christensen),
and the youngest, Popeye (Evan Rachel Wood), who are all ageing
quicker than a bottle of milk.
When neighbour Denny (Costner) - now working as a radio announcer
but spending most of his days guzzling beer – starts
popping around to share a drink with the frazzled Terry, everyone’s
life starts to take a radical, but welcome, turn.
Costner plays the supporting role – yes, you read right,
supporting role, he’s obviously had an ego transplant
somewhere between this and his last floperoo – of a retired
baseball star wooing the newly widowed mother next door. His
character, Denny Davies, is grey-haired, balding, pot-bellied,
bristly and usually with a brewskie in hand.
And you know what? The Oscar Winner is the best he has been
in years – he’s real, he’s likeable, he’s
memorable. Everything his last ten years of characters weren’t.
To Costner’s merit, he might have needed to be a bit
older to play this part, so he had to wait a few years before
he could wear the trousers of such a character.
Like Jack Nicholson’s unexpectedly effective role of
the portly but charismatic neighbour in Terms of Endearment
(1982), Costner eats up the part, and will incontrovertibly
win back all those fans he’s lost since swimming in dudville.
Though Allen and her ‘girls’ are super-solid in
their respective roles (as is writer/director Mike Binder
as a middle-aged radio producer with a penchant for young
ladies), The Upside of Anger is Costner’s movie.
He brings the perfect equilibrium of emotion and creditability
to the celebrity baseball player-turned-dishevelled drunk.
The character is a treasure – so lonely that he actually
enjoys hanging around at Terry’s, even when she’s
battling with her daughters; he forms a connection with everyone
on screen, and everyone off. Even when the film begins to
swim uneasily between genres – it does take a dark turn
towards the end – he’s still as solid as a paperweight.
An incredibly real, unbelievably candid, and ultimately,
touching film, The Upside of Anger is a welcome surprise
for both Costner fans, and an even finer treat for those yearning
for a return to films with a solid story, and not much more.
3.5 out of 5
The Upside of Anger
Australian release: Thursday 12th of May, 2005
Cast: Joan Allen, Kevin Costner, Mike Binder, Evan Rachel
Wood, Erika Christensen, Keri Russell, Alicia Witt.
Director: Mike Binder.
Website: Click
here.
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