| | |
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.35:1, Dolby Digital (5.1), Dolby Surround Sound, Audio Commentary, Deleted Scenes, Trailer, Documentary, English, Spanish Subtitled
In life, sometimes the very things that pull us apart can also bring us back together. Joan Allen and Kevin Costner lead a stellar ensemble cast in the moving story of a bright, witty suburban housewife (Allen) whose world comes crashing down when her husband unexpectedly disappears. Left to raise four headstrong daughters (Erika Christensen, Evan Rachel Wood, Keri Russell and Alicia Witt), Terry's already hectic life turns totally chaotic when she falls for Denny (Costner), a former baseball star-turned-local DJ. Now it's the girls who are forced to deal with their mom's romantic dilemmas - along with their own - in this poignant yet wickedly humorous family drama.
"Allen turns the character into a tour de force..." Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter
"Original, unfailingly entertaining marital-breakup movie." Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun
"A fiercely funny human comedy with jokes that sting and leave marks. " Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"Wondrous performances!" Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle
Editor's Note
Starring Joan Allen, THE UPSIDE OF ANGER spans three years of a woman's life following her husband's sudden disappearance. Terry Wolfmeyer (Allen), an affluent suburban Detroit wife and mother, goes from a paragon of sweetness to a volcano of rage in the wake of her husband's desertion; she thinks he has jetted off to Sweden with his Swedish secretary. Barely holding it together for her four daughters (distinctively played by Alicia Witt, Keri Russell, Erika Christensen, and Evan Rachel Wood), Terry fitfully adjusts while befriending Denny Davies (Costner), a retired baseball player and radio personality up the street who shares her love of the all-day cocktail hour.Allen is a delightful force, displaying serious comedic talent and effortlessly stealing each scene. She glows with an unaffected sexiness, while Costner shines as the seemingly all-wrong man who turns out to be completely right. Writer-director Mike Binder casts a keenly perceptive eye on male-female relationships, a topic he also explored in his critically-acclaimed HBO series THE MIND OF THE MARRIED MAN. Binder also appears in a role as Denny's producer Shep, a shallow womanizer with surprisingly resonant reasons for being shallow. As the three years pass, Terry and her daughters are confronted with varying individual situations, choices, and compromises, with moments that ring true in ways both moving and strikingly funny. THE UPSIDE OF ANGER is an ideal combination of drama and humor.
| Features | 30 Minute Documentary | | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Subtitles: English, Spanish | | "Creating The Upside of Anger" Featurette | | Trailer | | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Stereo | | Widescreen Presentation | | Commentary with Director Mike Binder and Joan Allen | | 8 Deleted Scenes |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
| | Studio: New Line |
| Release Date: 1/23/2007 |
| Running Time: 117 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2005 | | Catalog ID: 8259 | | UPC: 00794043825927 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Available Subtitles: English, Spanish | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
|
| | Professional Reviews | Entertainment Weekly
"Costner and Allen show you what it means not just to play a role but to inhabit it." 03/18/2005 p.45-46USA Today
"[Allen's] edgy comic ability is well established with this role." 03/11/2005 p.3E Chicago Sun-Times
"[A] wonderfully made comedy of domestic manners..." 03/18/2005 p.30 Movieline's Hollywood Life
"While UPSIDE marks Costner's return to lighthearted acting form, it's Allen who shines..." 07/01/2005 p.104 Premiere
"[Costner] seems to only now be realizing his full potential as an actor....Pleasant and interesting..." 10/01/2005 p.134 Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "Joan Allen impresses once again in this acerbic portrait of a Detroit matriach..." 01/01/2007 p.40 Sight and Sound
"[A] comedy-drama for grownups, with plenty of recognisable angst to laugh or cringe at, and a final twist that plays heavy on life's ironies." 01/01/2007 p.82 LA Weekly 8 of 10
One senses that this is an intensely personal project for Binder, who is not as forgiving as he might be toward the mercurial mother. Still, the film is carried by Costner and Allen, who project a chemistry so incrementally built on reluctant camaraderie, they almost seem like siblings. - Ella Taylor
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
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. - Roger Ebert
|
| |
|
|
|
