The Upside here is the brilliant work of Joan Allen and Kevin Costner. Yes, that Kevin Costner.
The Upside of Anger (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:167
Fresh:122
Rotten:45
Average Rating:6.7/10
Consensus: A comedy/ drama for grown-ups, with fine performances by Joan Allen and Kevin Costner.
Runtime: 2 hrs 1 min
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Mar 11, 2005 Limited
Box Office: $18,742,061
Synopsis: Starring Joan Allen, THE UPSIDE OF ANGER spans three years of a woman's life following her husband's sudden disappearance. Terry Wolfmeyer (Allen), an affluent suburban Detroit wife and mother,... Starring Joan Allen, THE UPSIDE OF ANGER spans three years of a woman's life following her husband's sudden disappearance. Terry Wolfmeyer (Allen), an affluent suburban Detroit wife and mother, goes from a paragon of sweetness to a volcano of rage in the wake of her husband's desertion; she thinks he has jetted off to Sweden with his Swedish secretary. Barely holding it together for her four daughters (distinctively played by Alicia Witt, Keri Russell, Erika Christensen, and Evan Rachel Wood), Terry fitfully adjusts while befriending Denny Davies (Costner), a retired baseball player and radio personality up the street who shares her love of the all-day cocktail hour. Allen is a delightful force, displaying serious comedic talent and effortlessly stealing each scene. She glows with an unaffected sexiness, while Costner shines as the seemingly all-wrong man who turns out to be completely right. Writer-director Mike Binder casts a keenly perceptive eye on male-female relationships, a topic he also explored in his critically-acclaimed HBO series THE MIND OF THE MARRIED MAN. Binder also appears in a role as Denny's producer Shep, a shallow womanizer with surprisingly resonant reasons for being shallow. As the three years pass, Terry and her daughters are confronted with varying individual situations, choices, and compromises, with moments that ring true in ways both moving and strikingly funny. THE UPSIDE OF ANGER is an ideal combination of drama and humor. [More]
Starring: Joan Allen, Kevin Costner, Erika Christensen, Alicia Witt
Starring: Joan Allen, Kevin Costner, Erika Christensen, Alicia Witt, Evan Rachel Wood, Keri Russell, Mike Binder
Director: Mike Binder
Director: Mike Binder
Producer: Alex Gartner, Jack Binder, Sammy Lee
Composer: Alexandre Desplat
Studio: New Line Cinema
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Reviews for The Upside of Anger
The movie offers smug observation posing as insight and judgment posing as sympathy.
Binder creates a familiar, complex, realistic, deeply human dynamic between his characters, and provides each actor rich layers of feeling and humor with which to create them.
[Allen and Costner] deliver pitch-perfect performances that lift The Upside of Anger several notches above the sometimes schematic script and direction.
What's best about Upside is its gonzo-sitcom craziness, a situation that lends itself to enjoyable performances.
It feels like a retread of several better movies, with a nastier, more bitter edge.
Though this is not the type of serious film likely to win many awards, Allen gives one of her best performances.
The characters are actually believable, and the messes they get into approximate real life.
This rich, supple, truly felt movie is a big leap for Binder, and while he clearly studied the sitcom manual for timing and structure, the film rises like a bubble above soap opera.
Perfectly adult, perfectly acted and perfectly adorable, it surprises and charms for most of those 90 minutes.
Despite Denny's sturdy support, The Upside of Anger belongs to Terry.
This is one of those films with a math problem, where the sum of its parts do not add up. But what parts!
One seriously enjoyable film, filled with laughs and recognizable situations and people you might know or like to know.
Allen, who is without doubt one of the best actors of her era, gets to go places she has never before gone, while Costner gets to remind us exactly what it was we were drawn to in Bull Durham.
It stands as a strong piece of comic filmmaking, elevated by Allen's acid-laced performance and Costner's shambling charm.
Latest News for The Upside of Anger
June 08, 2006:
Sandler to Star in 9/11 Drama
Big-screen comedian Adam Sandler is going to get a little more serious for his next role. He'll be starring in Mike Binder's 9/11 drama "Empty City," along with Don... More...
February 21, 2006:
Actress Trio Joins Sandler's "Reign"
Actresses Liv Tyler, Saffron Burrows, and Jada Pinkett-Smith will be joining Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle in "Reign O'er Me," a post-9/11 drama from "Upside of... More...
January 11, 2006:
Chicago Critics Pick Their 2005 Winners (and Iowa!)
The Chicago Film Critics Group announced their nominees just before New Years' Eve, and they reconvened this week to vote on their year-end favorites. Also, the Iowa Film... More...
January 10, 2006:
Online Film Critics Offer Their Annual Nominations
The OFCS, which is hosted right here at Rotten Tomatoes and (full disclosure) includes yours truly as a member, announced their year-end nominations yesterday ... and we hope... More...
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