The Upside of Anger
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| The Upside of Anger | |
|---|---|
 Promotional movie poster for The Upside of Anger |
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| Directed by | Mike Binder |
| Produced by | Jack Binder Alex Gartner Sammy Lee |
| Written by | Mike Binder |
| Starring | Joan Allen Kevin Costner Erika Christensen Evan Rachel Wood Keri Russell Alicia Witt Mike Binder |
| Music by | Alexandre Desplat |
| Cinematography | Richard Greatrex |
| Editing by | Steve Edwards Robin Sales |
| Distributed by | Fine Line Features |
| Release date(s) | March 11, 2005 |
| Running time | 118 mins. |
| Country |  |
| IMDb profile | |
The Upside of Anger is a 2005 drama/comedy/romance written and directed by Mike Binder. Set in the Detroit area, it stars Joan Allen, Kevin Costner and Evan Rachel Wood amongst others. It has earned a 72% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Tagline: Sometimes what tears us apart helps us put it back together.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The story begins at a funeral where a woman named Terry Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen) stands beside a man named Denny Davies (Kevin Costner). Along side them is Terry’s daughter Lavender (Evan Rachel Wood), nicknamed “Popeye”, who narrates and says that her mom wasn’t always angry. In fact she used to be a very nice woman, everyone loved her.
It then cuts to 3 years earlier where Terry is at the breakfast table with her four daughters, Popeye, Emily (Keri Russell), Hadley (Alicia Witt) and Andy (Erika Christensen). She breaks down and tells her daughters that her husband, their father, has left them. He’s been gone a couple days and she knows that he left to be with his former secretary in Sweden.
After breakfast, while watching war reports on TV, Denny (holding his always present Budweiser can) knocks on the door. Terry doesn’t want to see her husband’s friend and avoids him. Denny finally talks his way in and Terry tells him the news. Denny is shocked. He actually came by just to discuss their backyard property, which Denny is trying to purchase to build more houses.
Denny is a former baseball star, bored out of his mind, spending his days hosting a radio talk show where he’ll talk about anything except baseball. The rest of his day is spent drinking, and signing cases and cases of bats and balls piled up in his living room. Denny and Terry decide to just sit around, watch the news and drink, then drink some more.
Meanwhile, the girls are in the kitchen fixing dinner. Unfortunately their dog starts nibbling on the chicken and just before they throw it out, Denny is invited over for dinner. He loves the chicken and the girls try not to laugh. They ask if he’s coming back tomorrow and he say yeah, as long as there’s great chicken like that. Right here is where Denny becomes very close and eventually is almost a part of the family.
Each of the girls has their own little storyline going on. The oldest daughter, Hadley, is a college student. While away at college she falls in love, becomes pregnant then engaged to be married (in that order). While meeting the boyfriends parents Terry makes a drunken fool of herself.
Andy has decided not to go to college. Denny gets her a job at his radio station as a production assistant. She actually gets the job because Denny’s producer, Adam "Shep" Goodman (Mike Binder), a lecherous 40 something man is instantly attracted to her. One night Terry walks into Andy’s bedroom only to find her in bed with Shep.
The next day everyone is at the dinner table, including Denny and Shep. Shep has absolutely no table manners and while he slurps his soup, Terry just glares at him. The longer she glares the higher the tension. Finally, Shep’s head explodes sending blood everywhere. Terry is covered in splattered blood where she now has a very happy look on her face. Of course it was all just in her imagination.
Eventually, Hadley is married and they have a nice reception. At the reception Terry finally has it out with Shep in a great argument that ends with Terry slapping him a few times. Shep confides that he likes younger women because they're fun and happy, and he would never date a miserable, angry woman like Terry.
Popeye is attending a private high school. She is attracted to a cute guy and her sister tells her to tell him that she's from a broken home – guys like that. She does but really gets no response. Eventually she has him over to work on a video for her film class She leans over to kiss him but he just turns away. Finally he confesses that he’s gay. While she's heartbroken over this fact, she still remains close to him.
The other daughter Emily wants to go to a performing arts school to study dancing. Terry thinks it’s ridiculous. Terry and Denny are awakened one night with news that Emily is in the hospital. Terry rushes to be with her while Denny stays home to be with Popeye in case she wakes up. The doctors are unsure if her problem is just stress or maybe even cancer. It turns out it was just stress.
A few weeks later while Terry is trying to have a stress free dinner with her kids and grandkid, Hadley announces she’s pregnant again.
Popeye and Denny spend the day with her gay boyfriend and his dad at a bungee jumping area. We learn that the boyfriend had always bragged about jumping but he’s actually too scared to. Denny, making him feel better says he is too. On the way home, Popeye asks Denny if he'll marry her mom. Denny says she’s too complicated.
That night Denny tells Terry what Popeye asked and Terry is furious. She screams at Denny that he’s trying to use her daughter to get to her. She locks herself in the bathroom. Denny kicks down the bathroom door and explains to her that she’s got it all wrong. He’s put up with all her crap because he knows she’s in pain but it’s got to stop. He leaves and goes back to his own house.
While at a supermarket Terry meets Shep who says that maybe the two of them should have some drinks together and talk things out. Terry refuses and is pissed. At the radio station, Denny yells at Shep for "hitting on" Terry. He fires Shep as his producer.
Finally we cut to Terry’s backyard. Work has finally begun on Denny’s project. One of the workers is walking through some brush and steps on an old well cover and almost falls in. As he looks inside, Denny comes running nearby. He has a flashlight and looks inside where he finds the body of Terry’s husband. It appears that he never left her. Instead, he had fallen in the well while pondering Denny’s offer years earlier. Popeye finishes her narration of the effects of anger.
[edit] Trivia
- At the wedding scene, the band plays "Try a little tenderness" and after singing the first couple of lines, the singer hums, as if he forgot the lyrics. This is a cross-movie joke as this was the same song featured in Bull Durham, where Kevin Costner's character gets upset with another player for not knowing the words to "Try a little tenderness"
- Another cross-movie reference... When Terry goes to Denny's house to clean, she holds up a poster of Denny in a Detroit Tigers uniform. Costner played a Detroit Tiger in the movie "For Love of the Game".
- The character played by Kevin Costner is loosely based on former Detroit Tigers Denny McLain and Kirk Gibson. Mike Binder was born and raised in Detroit and often incorporates the city or the Tigers into his films.
[edit] Cast
- Joan Allen — Terry Wolfmeyer
- Kevin Costner — Denny Davies
- Alicia Witt — Hadley Wolfmeyer
- Keri Russell — Emily Wolfmeyer
- Erika Christensen — Andy Wolfmeyer
- Evan Rachel Wood — Lavender "Popeye" Wolfmeyer
- Mike Binder— Adam "Shep" Goodman
- Chris Burgess — David Junior
- Dane Christensen — Gorden Reiner
- Danny Webb — Grey Wolfmeyer
- Magdalena Manville — Darlene
- Suzanne Bertish — Gina
- David Firth — David Senior
- Rod Woodruff — Dean Reiner
- Stephen Greif — Emily's Doctor
- Mitch Minton — Big Fan
[edit] Awards and nominations
[edit] Awards won
- Chicago Film Critics Association: (1) Best Actress - Joan Allen
- San Francisco Film Critics Circle: (1) Best Supporting Actor - Kevin Costner
[edit] Nominations
- Online Film Critics Society: (1) Best Actress - Joan Allen
- Satellite Awards: (2) Best Musical or Comedy Actor - Kevin Costner, Best Musical or Comedy Actress - Joan Allen
[edit] External links
- The Upside of Anger at the Internet Movie Database
- The Upside of Anger at Rotten Tomatoes
- Clips at Mike Binder's personal site
