The Upside of Anger is a 2005 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Mike Binder and starring Joan Allen, Kevin Costner and Evan Rachel Wood. The film was produced by Alex Gartner, Sammy Lee and Jack Binder. According to Binder in the "Making of" featurette on the film's DVD, the script was rejected by several major studios due to the casting of Allen (which goes unexplained); he and his producer brother Jack Binder then sought independent financing and renegotiated compensation deals with talent in order to complete the film. Binder said the film was able to get the green-light from studios when Kevin Costner was cast.

Much of the film was shot at Ealing Studios, London, with some scenes filmed in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a wealthy suburb of Detroit. At one point in the film, Detroit rock radio station WRIF serves as a backdrop.

Costner's character, Denny Davies, is believed to be based on Detroit Tigers pitcher Denny McLain. Like McLain, Davies is a retired player from the Detroit Tigers who later had a radio talk show (several still pictures of Costner from his 1999 film For Love of the Game, in which he played a Tigers pitcher named Billy Chapel, are used as posters in Davies' radio studio).

Reception

Release

The Upside of Anger premiered in January 2005 at the Sundance Film Festival and went into a limited theatrical release in the U.S. on March 11, 2005.

Critical response

The film holds a 74% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes based on 182 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "A comedy/drama for grown-ups, with fine performances by Joan Allen and Kevin Costner."

Much praise was given to the performance of Joan Allen, with David Denby of The New Yorker calling her "rancorously funny" and Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter writing, "Allen turns the character into a tour de force that unleashes an unexpected comedy about compassion and self-loathing." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote the film is "a fiercely funny human comedy with jokes that sting and leave marks."

Critic Roger Ebert gave the film 4 out of 4 stars writing, "I liked these characters precisely because they were not designed to be likable - or, more precisely, because they were likable in spite of being exasperating, unorganized, self-destructive and impervious to good advice." Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club noted the film's thematic similarities to American Beauty, another "dark suburban comedy leavened by the promise of arty redemption." He added, "So long as the tone stays mean and unpredictable, The Upside Of Anger has a coarse edge that's rare for mainstream cinema, helped along by the offbeat rapport between Allen and Costner."

Desson Thomson of The Washington Post liked "its gonzo-sitcom craziness, a situation that lends itself to enjoyable performances" and praised the four actresses who play the Wolfmeyer daughters. A. O. Scott of The New York Times did not think that the characters existed "in a credible dramatic context", yet admired how the film "edged a bit closer toward the emotional realities of modern adults."

Multiple critics panned the ending. The Village Voice called it a "stupefying final twist, a stunning betrayal of audience trust," and A. O. Scott wrote it "warps the film's narrative logic beyond repair." Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail wrote, "Lots of movies have holes in the logic of their plot, but not the size of this yawning aperture - it's big enough to accommodate a Mack truck pulling a full load." Ebert defended the ending, writing, "Life can contain catastrophe, and life can cheat. The ending is the making of the movie, its transcendence, its way of casting everything in a new and ironic light, causing us to reevaluate what went before, and to regard the future with horror and pity. Without the ending, The Upside of Anger is a wonderfully made comedy of domestic manners. With it, the movie becomes larger and deeper."

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| rowspan="2" |Critics' Choice Movie Awards

|Best Actress

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|Best Supporting Actor

|Kevin Costner

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|Online Film Critics Society

|Best Actress

|Joan Allen

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|San Francisco Film Critics Circle

|Best Supporting Actor

|Kevin Costner

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| rowspan="2" |Satellite Awards

|Best Musical or Comedy Actress

|Joan Allen

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|Best Musical or Comedy Actor

|Kevin Costner

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Home media

The Upside of Anger was released on DVD from New Line Home Entertainment on July 26, 2005.

References

The Upside of Anger Produced by Jack Binder | FilmBudget.com