Reign Over Me (Cert 15, 124 mins) Stars Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Saffron Burrows, Liv Tyler, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Paula Newsome Directed by Mike Binder
YOU can understand why Adam Sandler wanted to do this movie: it gets him about as far away from his usual comedy roles as it is possible to get. He plays Charlie, a bereaved husband with post- traumatic stress, and chews up the scenery doing so.
What makes the plot particularly significant is that his wife, children and even the family dog all perished in one of the 9/11 aircraft.
Since then, the former dentist has given up on life and spends all his time living alone in his apartment playing a computer game, buying vinyl 1960s and 1970s rock albums and occasionally playing drums with a punk band in a local club. He has no friends.
Unshaven and looking totally dishevelled, he travels around New York on a motorised scooter, an activity made much of in the opening scene.
He is spotted one day by his old dental school roommate Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle), but ignores the shouts from Johnson’s traffic-jammed car.
It seems that Johnson has his own problems, married with children, he is dispirited, family life is a bore and he even hates his highly-paid job.
The two eventually meet and Johnson, despite his old friend’s quirky behaviour, makes it his project to get Charlie back on track.
It’s not easy as Charlie is liable to fly off the handle at the slightest mention of his old life, at one stage breaking up Johnson’s dental practice waiting room.
To add to the complications, Johnson finds one of his attractive customers (Saffron Burrows) demanding sex from him, and when he refuses she institutes a court case alleging he has sexually attacked her.
Despite its two-hours running time, there does not seem to be enough time to include every aspect of the various relationships going on in director/writer Mike Binder’s script: Johnson even has an attractive psychiatrist friend played by Liv Tyler who is called in to help.
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