The Upside Of Anger Review

Finally receiving a release after a delay of almost a year, "The Upside of Anger" is a delightful comedy-drama with a terrific ensemble cast. Written and directed by Mike Binder ("Reign Over Me"), the film stars Joan Allen as Terry, the mother of four gorgeous daughters (Alicia Witt, Erika Christensen, Keri Russell and Evan Rachel Wood), who hits the bottle in anger after her husband unexpectedly disappears. Terry has enough problems with her daughters' various romantic entanglements but then her booze-loving, ex-baseball star neighbour (Kevin Costner as Denny Davies) starts hitting on her.

Like "The Squid and the Whale", The Upside of Anger pulls off the difficult trick of making you laugh and cry at the same time. The script is packed full of wonderful lines and delightful scenes, as well as some great visual jokes, including an off-the-wall fantasy moment that comes from nowhere and provides one of the film's biggest laughs.

The entire cast are superb, but the acting honours are split equally between Allen and Costner. Allen, in particular, is wonderful, seething with rage throughout and masking her pain and vulnerability by lashing out with sarcastic barbs. As for Costner, Denny Davies proves to be his best role since Roy "Tin Cup" McAvoy and he responds with a career best performance. He's also surprisingly good at acting stoned (particularly when he keeps giggling at inappropriate moments) and the romance between him and Allen is both believable and genuinely romantic.

In addition, Binder himself appears in a hilarious role as Denny's sleazy radio producer, but it does seem a particularly shameless abuse of writer-director's privileges, given that he's basically written himself a relationship with one of the girls.

In short, this is a thoroughly engaging, superbly written and brilliantly acted drama that's both moving and genuinely funny.