Imperfect life is perfect in ‘The Upside of Anger’ At the movies
April 1, 2005
by: Roger Ebert
Joan Allen and Kevin Costner achieve something in “The Upside of Anger” that might have been harder than co-starring in “Macbeth.” They create two imperfect, alcoholic, resentful ordinary people, neighbors in the suburbs, with enough money to support themselves in the discontent to which they have become accustomed. I liked these characters precisely because they were not designed to be likable – or, more precisely, because they were likable in spite of being exasperating, unorganized, self-destructive and impervious to good advice.
Allen plays Terry Wolfmeyer, suburban wife and mother of four daughters (“One of them hates me and the other three are working on it”). Her husband has walked out of the marriage, and all signs point to his having fled the country to begin a new life in Sweden with his secretary. The girls, of college and high school age, dress expensively, are well-groomed, prepare the family meals and run the household, while their mother emcees with a vodka and tonic. Her material is smart and bitter, although she sees the humor in the situation, and in herself.
Costner plays her neighbor, Denny Davies, once a star pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, now a sports-talk host who is bored by sports and talk. He spends his leisure time at the lonely but lucrative task of autographing hundreds of baseballs to sell online and at fan conventions. When Terry’s husband disappears, Denny materializes as a friend in need.
In “The Upside of Anger,” written and directed by Mike Binder, Allen and Costner occupy a comedy buried in angst. The camaraderie between Terry and Denny is like the wounded affection of two people with hangovers and plenty of time to drink them away. The four daughters have sized up the situation and are getting on with their lives in their own ways, mostly competently. Hadley (Alicia Witt) is a cool, centered college student; Andy (Erika Christensen) reacts as second children often do, by deciding she will not be Hadley and indeed will accept an offer to be an intern on Denny’s radio show – an offer extended enthusiastically by Shep (Binder), the 40-ish producer, who is a shameless letch. Emily (Keri Russell) is at war with her mother; she wants to be a dancer, and her mother says there’s no money or future in it. Popeye (Evan Rachel Wood) is the youngest, but maturing too rapidly.
It is inevitable that Denny and Terry will become lovers. The girls like him. He is lonely, and Terry’s house feels more like home than his own, where the living room is furnished primarily by boxes of baseballs. So the movie proceeds with wit, intelligence and a certain horrifying fascination.
And then comes an unexpected development. Because “The Upside of Anger” opened a week earlier in New York than in Chicago, I am aware of the despair about this development from the New York Times (the ending “is an utter catastrophe”) and the Wall Street Journal (the ending is “a cheat”).
They are mistaken. Life can contain catastrophe, and life can cheat. The ending is the making of the movie, its transcendence, its way of casting everything in a new and ironic light, causing us to re-evaluate what went before, and to regard the future with horror and pity. Without the ending, “The Upside of Anger” is a wonderfully made comedy of domestic manners. With it, the movie becomes larger and deeper. When life plays a joke on you, it can have a really rotten sense of humor.