REIGN OVER ME (2007) - Directed by Mike Binder

STARRING:
Adam Sandler - Charlie Fineman
Don Cheadle - Alan Johnson
Jada Pinkett Smith - Janeane Johnson

PLOT: Alan Johnson (Cheadle) is a successful dentist in New York City who seems to be in a rut as far as his life at home is with his beautiful wife (Pinkett Smith) and their two daughters - that is until he comes across his old dentist school roommate Charlie (Sandler), whose own wife and three daughters were killed aboard one of the two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center. With Charlie's life relegated to playing video games and riding on his moped all night, Alan becomes infatuated with his old pal's "freedom" while also becoming increasingly involved in trying to help Charlie finally cope with his losses...before he loses something himself.

REVIEW: When I saw the trailer for this movie a couple of months ago I said to myself, "That looks like it'll be good." And guess what? It was. "Reign Over Me" is the second best movie of 2007, behind Zack Snyder's "300", but for very different reasons. Where "300" was pretty much all action and very little character development, "Reign" is completely character development and that's why I liked it. I cared about Alan and Charlie and their friendship, old and new. The main reason for this is because Cheadle and Sandler absolutely owned this movie. Cheadle (who I like from the "Ocean's 11/12" movies) and Sandler (who I love from all his movies) do an incredible job of making these characters their own, making it seems like the banter between the two was honest and sincere, and making it harder to watch when their friendship was strained at different points in the movie.

On the good side of this movie was the acting and the character development, as I've mentioned. It was very realistic to watch all of the actors and how they related with one another. Another part I loved was the subplot where Alan has a particularly "friendly" patient who only wishes to perform sexual favors on him. Sandler and Cheadle are able to get a lot of laughs out of this subplot, which made for some good lightness in a movie that for all intents and purposes is pretty heavy.

On the downside of "Reign" was the total time of the movie and how it looked occasionally. There were a few scenes that could have either been cut completely or snipped down to make the movie shorter (in particular, some scenes where Charlie is seeing a psychiatrist). Also, the whole movie was shot on digital camera, and at times the screen looked grainy and it threw me out of the movie. It was almost as if I was watching a documentary sometimes.

ACTING: Don Cheadle (Alan) does a very good job of making himself the "Everyman". He pulled the part of exasperated, mid-life crisis sufferer off and we were able to laugh at his situations when the time came for us to laugh and we cringed when something went wrong. He also has very expressive eyes. It's Adam Sandler (Charlie) that steals the show, however. Sandler played the part of a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder sufferer to a T. Sandler used his repetoire of crazy guy and everyman with complete ease and that was needed for a character like this. I felt sorry for the guy throughout the whole movie. Basically, I think Sandler should get nominated for an Oscar for this role. Pinkett Smith does a fine job of playing the stressed out wife; Liv Tyler does an okay job playing a psychiatrist; and the great Donald Sutherland was awesome as a hard-ass judge.

DIRECTING: Binder ("The Upside of Anger"), who also played Charlie's accountant, does a great job of making us feel for the characters in his movie. The most important thing in a movie or television show to me is whether or not I care about the characters, and he made me care about his. Binder probably got the most out of Sandler and Cheadle that he could, so props to him. The look of the movie was good for the most part (nice shots of NYC) but as I said earlier, I was thrown off by the movie obviously being shot on digital camera sometimes.

RATING REASON: "Reign Over Me" is rated R for language and some sexual situations. Language means f*ck, sh*t, p*ssy, and even f*gg*t. Sexual situations means joking around about and discussing oral sex.

THE FINAL WORD: Overall, I really liked "Reign Over Me", mainly because of Cheadle and Sandler. I could totally see the two of them as buddies in real life. The acting was top notch, the musical choices were excellent (Charlier loves him some vinyl records), and Binder did a fantastic job of making his movie about 9/11 while at the same time not. If you're looking for a movie to entertain you for two straight hours, this is not that movie. It's 98% dialogue, so if you're going to see this movie, make sure you like to listen to people talk. THREE AND A HALF STARS (out of four)

TRIVIA:
--The film was shot using the Panavision Genesis camera system and edited using Apple Inc.'s Final Cut Pro software.
--Brad Pitt was considered for the role that ultimately went to Adam Sandler.