Review of Upside Of Anger, The

Introduction

What is it with Kevin Costner and baseball? As far back as I can remember, every movie he has been in has had baseball connotations of some degree. Even The Untouchables had that baseball bat scene. He stole bases from the rich and hit home runs for the poor in Robin Hood: Prince of Sluggers, and he played underwater baseball in Waterworld Series. Thankfully he broadened his range somewhat when he played a corn farmer in Field Of Dreams. But what role is there for the middle aged, slightly gone to seed, paunchy actor? Well in The Upside Of Anger, Costner plays a washed up, former baseball star…

Terry Wolfmeyer is a loving mother of four daughters, whose world is turned upside down when her husband runs off to Sweden with his secretary, with nary a by your leave. Overnight, Terry goes from nice and sweet to hard-drinking woman scorned, taking out her increasingly irrational rage on her daughters, those around her, and whatever stray target happens to wander into range. Which is when Denny Davies enters her life. Denny is a former baseball player turned radio talk-show host and erstwhile entrepreneur, and he was negotiating with her husband for a plot of land at the end of the garden, but seeing Terry`s plight, he offers an unconventional, and slightly stoned drinking buddy`s shoulder to lean on. Soon Denny is almost part of the family. It`s a family on the verge of a nervous breakdown, with four daughters pulling in different directions, and an increasingly embittered mother trying to hold the family together. But for some, anger can be a source of strength…

Video

The Upside Of Anger gets a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer that is relatively unproblematic (The IMDB says 2.35:1, but I didn`t notice any missing bits). This film has taken its time getting to DVD, three years in all, and I guess the odd smidgen of print damage can be overlooked. Otherwise the transfer is clear and sharp. I did notice some aliasing in a couple of scenes, but this is the standard that you would expect from your average DVD. The low budget independent feel is carried through with the naturalistic look and lighting, as well as the slight grain to proceedings.

Incidentally, this would be a good place to exhort you to support your local film industry. The Upside Of Anger was filmed at Ealing Studios. Yes, those Ealing Studios.

Audio

Well, it`s a dialogue heavy film, with little flash and bang, so you won`t notice a lot going on with the DD 5.1 English track, just enough to tell you that it isn`t the optional stereo track. The dialogue is mostly clear, and when some actor may be mumbling, English subtitles are there to ease the burden.

Features

The disc has just the theatrical trailer on it, although it is one of those trailers that have scenes not in the final cut. In one of those throwbacks to the bad old days of DVD, Region 1 trumps us for extras. There is also an anti-piracy ad after the movie, just where these things should be.

Conclusion

This was one of those lucky dip DVDs in the last reviewer free for all, the runt of the litter, the ugly duckling that no one wanted to review. So I wasn`t expecting much from this particular title. It`s fair to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this dark character comedy drama. This is one of those rare comedies that come along, which isn`t gag based, is never puerile or childish, and absolutely, under no circumstances, has any fart gags. Instead it is a very wry character observation, showing us a family suffering the trauma of abandonment and coming to terms with that, despite their own shortcomings. It`s comedy that comes naturally from the situation, it hardly ever feels contrived, and there are no crass one-liners where a gag writer may be winking furiously at the audience, trying to gain some recognition for his wit. It`s a midlife crisis writ large, and it had me laughing out loud to a greater degree than many so called `mainstream` comedies. Think a slightly family friendlier American Beauty, and you get an idea of this film`s outlook.

The central characters are excellent in this film. Joan Allen as Terry Wolfmeyer, the woman scorned gets the balance between embittered and embattled housewife, and offbeat sense of humour just right. But the revelation for me has to be Kevin Costner as Denny. He presents an easygoing front as the baseball star turned DJ, and his dishevelled manner sparks well against the brittle and pristine Terry. It`s as if he is a control rod inserted into the nuclear furnace of the Wolfmeyer family, and his presence is enough to keep them from going critical. But it also becomes apparent that he is the ideal person to help Terry through her crisis, as he too was abandoned by his baseball career, and since then has resented having to live off past glories. It`s why he insists on no baseball talk on his radio show.

The daughters also provide plenty of grief for Terry, with the youngest Popeye going through the strains of first love. Emily has dreams of being a dancer, something that Terry cannot countenance, her eldest Hadley comes back from college with a surprise, and Andy refuses to go to college saying she`d rather work. Denny convinces his producer Shep to give her a job, which is fine for Shep, who sees the next in the line of trophy girlfriends.

The film starts off well, and gets better as the situations and the characters develop. And then it throws it all away in the final act. It`s all hinted at in the first frames. The story is told in flashback, as narrated by Popeye, so the twist when it arrives is hardly unexpected. It`s also one of those twists apparently required by these sorts of films, which need a degree of moral certitude and closure (in air-quotes). So we get the twist, learn that the three years of rage and resentment that Terry went through were misplaced, and she might have been better off devoting her energies elsewhere. It`s also a twist that doesn`t hold up to a minute`s scrutiny, a plot development that collapses under the sheer weight of common sense. And it`s all wrapped up in yet another sanctimonious teenage narration, telling us the meaning of what we have just been watching for the last two hours. As if our underdeveloped brains are unable to figure that out for ourselves.

The Upside Of Anger is a delightful experience, a character based, intelligent and nicely twisted comedy, but the final fifteen minutes leave an unfortunate aftertaste. Give it a rent and see how it goes.