Reign Over Me: Movie Review

Reign Over Me was a great movie. I was hesitant to see this movie. I like both actors (not always Sandler) and it looked like something I might watch. Once I found out that it had a R rating, I decided against watching it in the movies. I am sorry I waited to watch it. This was a great movie. I was very impressed with the acting from both Adam and Don. This was probably the first serious character that Adam played that I have seen.

The premise of the movie (Watch out for spoilers) is that Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) is a dentist with a great life, possibly too good. His marriage has become mundane and predictable. His wife Janeane (Jada Pinkett Smith) and him have lost some of the spark that happened in the early part of their marriage. Enter Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler). Charlie enters the movie in what seems to be a crazy person on a scooter. As the story unfolds we learn that Charlie's wife and kids were lost in one of the planes of 9/11. Alan rekindles the friendship he had with Charlie while they were both in dental school and slowly unravels the mystery that is Charlie Fineman. Alan begins to spend a bunch of time with Charlie and does his best to befriend him and help him whenever he can. You can tell that Charlie is suffering from nothing more than a broken heart, and the movie ends with some breakthroughs in Charlie's life. There were other characters that appeared in this movie: Liv Tyler, Donald Sutherland and Saffron Burrows

Like I said, I loved this movie. Not only was it an original, it had a great story to go with it. The writer/director Mike Binder did a great job in creating a story with interesting characters that worked well together. I was intrigued throughout the entire movie and moved by the love in Charlie's heart after the loss of his family. The only problem I might have with this movie is the language. I don't think it was way out there, but it was there. Most of it is what you would hear in a non-secular conversation in New York.

I would recommend this to any adult to see it. I would be cautious of recommending it to a teenager just because of the language. I think this movie had some great points when it comes to communication and how we deal with problems. Alan has marriage problems because he isn't able to talk to his wife. He doesn't know how to display his feelings with his wife and his business partners. Obviously, Charlie has problems communicating his feelings of the loss of his wife and kids. I watched this movie having no idea how I would respond if that was me. I could completely see what happened to him and I would be the same way. Another great point of the movie is having someone to talk to. Charlie really befriends Alan because he didn't know his family. Alan was someone who wouldn't ask him questions that would remind him of his family. But as much as Charlie needs Alan, Alan needed Charlie. Alan needed to have someone to talk to and help him see what he was missing.

I am pretty sure I will use some clips from this movie in future lessons. I could think of a couple topics that would work...