The Upside Of Anger
(New Line)

Joan Allen is mad, or at least her character Terry Wolfmeyer is. Her husband appears to have run off with his young Swedish secretary, leaving her to raise her four daughters alone, so Terry’s life becomes one long alcoholic haze. This is the premise for The Upside Of Anger – one of the best “adult” movies of the past year and one that should earn Allen an Oscar nomination. Sharing the bill is Kevin Costner in his best role in years, as Denny Davies, a former baseball star who has a daily talk show on a local Detroit station where he’ll discuss everything except baseball. Denny starts hanging around and drinking with Terry to comfort her and before long, a romance begins to bloom. Her daughters try and dodge mom’s personality swings as they deal with their own romantic and life issues and all four young actresses (Erika Christensen, Evan Rachel Wood, Keri Russell and Alicia Witt) make the most of their time on screen. Director Mike Binder (The Mind Of The Married Man) has a knack for viewing situations from a feminine point of view and inspires quality performances from each of his cast members including his own part as Denny’s sleazy radio producer. It’s a testament to Binder that after writing the script with Allen in mind, he refused to cave into the major studios who demanded another actress and instead, sought funding from a smaller company. I don’t doubt that sales of this DVD will surpass the revenue taken in at the box office, but maybe that’s exactly how it should be.- David Bassin