Reign Over Me

2007

Director: Mike Binder

Composer: Pearl Jam

Distributor: Columbia Pictures

Key Elements: Characters – Message – Music

My Review:

I’m always interested when a comedic actor begins to take on dramatic roles. In the case of Adam Sandler, it really, really works.

This movie tells the story of a man who lost his wife and three daughters in the 9-11 attacks. He now lives on the insurance money – which is just as well because he is so overwrought with grief, he can’t function.

Then his college roommate runs into him and they rekindle their friendship while trying to come to terms with what happened.

Sandler’s performance is nothing short of incredible. You really get a sense of how he’s mentally barricaded himself. It’s heartbreaking.

But we get a great message about supporting people who are dealing with difficult trials – be it grief or something else. We must respect who and where they are, because everyone progresses differently.

Also, the title comes from features Pearl Jam's awesome cover of The Who's Love Reign o'er Me.

Trailer:



Quotes:

• Ahh Graham Nash - Songs For Beginners. Just... just the album cover alone, look at that face, he knows he made a great record.
• You know, my wife and I, we tried to call him so many times. Hadn't seen him in years, and I heard about what happened in the paper, and I was just... I was just heartbroken for him. For them. …He just shut down. Quit work. He stopped wanting to talk about her. Then he acted like he didn't remember them. Then he pretended he didn't remember us.
  - Yeah.
  All my husband and I want to do is see him. And that crazy landlady and his business manager, Sugarman, both conspire to keep us away.
  - Sugarman?
  Yeah, I don't care for him. Who knows what that little shyster's taking from Charlie.
  - What is there to take?
  Between the government payout and the insurance policy, Charlie has enough to take care of himself, put it that way. …My husband retired young. He was a cop. We were young, young to be grandparents. I was gonna do nothing but travel and spoil my granddaughters. Then those monsters flew over here from across the world, and rearranged my dance card.
• Geena was five. Jenny was seven, she, uh... she liked boys already. Julie was 9. She was... she was older. They all looked alike, Johnson. Like Doreen. Doreen was my wife. DT. That was her nickname. Doreen Timpleman. She had a dog, Spider. Spider... the poodle. They'd wake me up all the time, Saturday mornings, you know, singing Beatles songs to me in harmony, the four of them... so cute, so cute. Doreen never judged me... never nagged like some wives do. Wanted me to take my shoes off so I didn't wreck the carpet. That's it. Doreen and the girls were VERY female. I... I... I was the oddball, you know. Mr. Man. They adored me, Johnson...
  - I bet they did... I know they did, Charlie.
  With the long brown hair... except little Geena. She kept the hair short... to be different from everybody... she, um, she had a birthmark, though. Looked like a burn... but it wasn't. She always said it was gonna go away, but it... it never did. Jenny, Jenny, this one... she wanted to be a gymnast. She was such a klutz, though. I didn't have the heart to mention it as a problem. They, uh, went to see Doreen's sister Ellen and her girls in Boston, and they took Spider, because... I had to work and they didn't trust me to feed her, but that was a joke. We were all going to DT's little cousin's wedding in Los Angeles, and I was gonna meet them out there... The kids wanted to go to Disneyland, but they... they uh, were already gonna miss a couple days of school, so we had to say no. You know. So I'm going out to meet them in Los Angeles, and on the way to JFK, I'm in a taxicab and I hear on the radio... I get there and the man tells me the plane's from Boston... another man tells me there's two planes. …Then I go inside the airport and I'm watching. I'm watching on the television... and I... and I... I... I saw it. I saw it and I felt it at the same time. I thought about Geena's birthmark, and I... I felt them burning...
• I don't know how they can't see that he's just got a broken heart. It's so broken, his poor heart.
• I don't need to talk about her or look at pictures... 'cause the truth is, a lot of times, I see her... on the street. I walk down the street, I see her in someone else's face... clearer than any of the pictures you carry with you. I get that you're in pain, but you got each other. You got each other! And I'm the one who's gotta see her and the girls all the time. Everywhere I go! I even see the dog. That's how fucked up I still am! I look at a German shepherd, I see our goddamn poodle. All right... All right...

Stills: