Movie Review: The Upside of Anger
The Upside of Anger
Review © Deb Mudie, 2005
Rain. Three people in the back of a car, sombre. Orchestral opening music in a minor key. Voiceover of a young woman, talking about her mother. Her mother is angry, and has been for years.
It’s a funeral, of course. Out in the cemetery, casket on rollers with artificial grass beneath. The mourners all under black umbrellas. The Upside of Anger goes full-circle, beginning at the funeral - deceased and grieving alike unknown to the viewer - then back-tracking three years and gradually bringing the audience back to the same funeral, this time with details known and twist revealed.
Not the cheeriest start - or finish - to a movie. But that’s no reason to not go and see it. While The Upside of Anger is not a crash-bang explosions movie, it works on a more visceral level. It shows the audience about emotions and, eventually, prompts emotions from the viewers themselves.
Basic plot: Terry Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen) is angry - her husband has left her, run off with his Swedish secretary back to her homeland. Left with a large house and four daughters in high school and university, she wallows in her vodka. And near-neighbour Denny Davies (Kevin Costner), a retired baseball doing lunchtime DJing, happens by and joins her in her drinking.
From this, relationships slowly grow. However, The Upside of Anger isn’t just the difficult tale of Terry and Denny. All four daughters have their stories, and all of them are told - to the detriment of the film, which loses its way a bit in the middle. While they give well-rounded and complete personalities and lives, the meandering slowness it gives the movie would be better suited to a book or a Sunday Theatre mini-series.
Looked at as a character study, The Upside of Anger is an excellent film. All facets of emotion are covered. Anger is the top of the list, naturally, but there’s also grief, frustration, joy, love, fear, resignation, excitement, irritation and exploration. Watching Terry push both her daughters and Denny into their own emotional states makes up the centre section of the story: the impact anger has not only on the one feeling it, but on those around her.
And where’s the upside? Narration occurs only at the beginning and end of the movie, but youngest daughter ‘Popeye’ sums it up nicely: “The only upside to anger is the person you become.” Deep and meaningful, or twee and irritating? Well, that depends on how you viewed the rest of the movie.
It’s unfortunate that the movie would have been tighter and stronger (and more likely to be a Hollywood blockbuster) if the four daughters had been conflated down to two. Yet what makes this movie so memorable (in an Art House sense) is their individuality and interactions with Terry and Denny.
Don’t go expecting fast pacing and over-the-top conflict (although the odd ‘imaginary’ scenes are hysterical). Instead, prepare to empathise and cringe as this family lives three years with anger and loss. At the end of it, you will feel just as drained - yet hopeful - as they do.
Starring: Joan Allen’s tipsy swaying; Kevin Costner’s boorish radio voice; Alicia Witt’s flaming determination; Keri Russell’s wan fragility; Erika Christiansen’s rebellious goals; Evan Rachel Wood’s quiet maturity; Mike Binder’s irritating chauvinism; and Tom Harper’s flying leap.
The Upside of Anger is now showing at Rialto cinemas in Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch.
Review initially published here at varsity.co.nz.
Review © Deb Mudie, 2005
Rain. Three people in the back of a car, sombre. Orchestral opening music in a minor key. Voiceover of a young woman, talking about her mother. Her mother is angry, and has been for years.
It’s a funeral, of course. Out in the cemetery, casket on rollers with artificial grass beneath. The mourners all under black umbrellas. The Upside of Anger goes full-circle, beginning at the funeral - deceased and grieving alike unknown to the viewer - then back-tracking three years and gradually bringing the audience back to the same funeral, this time with details known and twist revealed.
Not the cheeriest start - or finish - to a movie. But that’s no reason to not go and see it. While The Upside of Anger is not a crash-bang explosions movie, it works on a more visceral level. It shows the audience about emotions and, eventually, prompts emotions from the viewers themselves.
Basic plot: Terry Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen) is angry - her husband has left her, run off with his Swedish secretary back to her homeland. Left with a large house and four daughters in high school and university, she wallows in her vodka. And near-neighbour Denny Davies (Kevin Costner), a retired baseball doing lunchtime DJing, happens by and joins her in her drinking.
From this, relationships slowly grow. However, The Upside of Anger isn’t just the difficult tale of Terry and Denny. All four daughters have their stories, and all of them are told - to the detriment of the film, which loses its way a bit in the middle. While they give well-rounded and complete personalities and lives, the meandering slowness it gives the movie would be better suited to a book or a Sunday Theatre mini-series.
Looked at as a character study, The Upside of Anger is an excellent film. All facets of emotion are covered. Anger is the top of the list, naturally, but there’s also grief, frustration, joy, love, fear, resignation, excitement, irritation and exploration. Watching Terry push both her daughters and Denny into their own emotional states makes up the centre section of the story: the impact anger has not only on the one feeling it, but on those around her.
And where’s the upside? Narration occurs only at the beginning and end of the movie, but youngest daughter ‘Popeye’ sums it up nicely: “The only upside to anger is the person you become.” Deep and meaningful, or twee and irritating? Well, that depends on how you viewed the rest of the movie.
It’s unfortunate that the movie would have been tighter and stronger (and more likely to be a Hollywood blockbuster) if the four daughters had been conflated down to two. Yet what makes this movie so memorable (in an Art House sense) is their individuality and interactions with Terry and Denny.
Don’t go expecting fast pacing and over-the-top conflict (although the odd ‘imaginary’ scenes are hysterical). Instead, prepare to empathise and cringe as this family lives three years with anger and loss. At the end of it, you will feel just as drained - yet hopeful - as they do.
Starring: Joan Allen’s tipsy swaying; Kevin Costner’s boorish radio voice; Alicia Witt’s flaming determination; Keri Russell’s wan fragility; Erika Christiansen’s rebellious goals; Evan Rachel Wood’s quiet maturity; Mike Binder’s irritating chauvinism; and Tom Harper’s flying leap.
The Upside of Anger is now showing at Rialto cinemas in Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch.
Review initially published here at varsity.co.nz.