The Upside of Anger

Infobox Film
name = The Upside of Anger


caption = Promotional movie poster for "The Upside of Anger"
director = Mike Binder
producer = Jack Binder
Alex Gartner
Sammy Lee
writer = Mike Binder
starring = Joan Allen
Kevin Costner
Erika Christensen
Evan Rachel Wood
Keri Russell
Alicia Witt
Mike Binder
Dane Christensen
music = Alexandre Desplat
Kevin Sargent
cinematography = Richard Greatrex
editing = Steve Edwards
Robin Sales
distributor = New Line Cinema
released = March 11, 2005
runtime = 118 mins.
country = flagicon|United States of America
awards =
language =
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0365885

"The Upside of Anger" is a 2005 drama/comedy/romance written and directed by Mike Binder and filmed in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. It stars Joan Allen, Kevin Costner and Evan Rachel Wood. It received a 74% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

Tagline: "Sometimes what tears us apart helps us put it back together."

Plot

The movie begins at a funeral which Terry Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen) attends with Denny (Kevin Costner), her new boyfriend. (At this point it is a mystery as to whose funeral it is.)

The movie flashes back to three years earlier where Terry is at the breakfast table with her daughters, Popeye (Evan Rachel Wood), Emily (Keri Russell), Hadley (Alicia Witt) and Andy (Erika Christensen). She breaks down and tells them that their father has left them. He has been gone a couple of days and Terry suspects that he left to be with his former secretary in Sweden.

Denny (holding a Budweiser can) knocks on the door wanting to discuss a real estate deal. Terry tells him the news and Denny is shocked. Denny is a retired baseball player turned radio talk show host. He and Terry decide to spend much of their time sitting around, watching the news and drinking. After his first visit for dinner, Denny becomes very close to the family, enjoying the excitement that the girls bring to his life. After much debate, Terry and Denny eventually sleep together.

Denny helps middle daughter, Andy, get a job as a production assistant at the radio station as she does not want to go back to college. She almost immediately begins an affair with Shep, Denny's producer who is a lecherous forty-something man who will not date women his own age.

Popeye (real name Lavender) is attending a private high school. She is attracted to a classmate and her sister advises her to tell him that she's from a broken home because she feels that boys like that. Popeye follows this advice but gets no response. Eventually she has him over to work on a video for her film class. Popeye moves to kiss him but the classmate rejects her claiming to be gay. Popeye is skeptical but she remains close to him.

The other daughter Emily wants to go to a performing arts school to study dancing, which her mother thinks is ridiculous. She vetoes Emily's plans and Emily, although angry, accedes to her mother's wishes, attending Michigan State University. Terry and Denny are awakened one night with news that Emily is in the hospital. The doctors are unsure if her problem is simply stress or maybe even cancer. It turns out it was just stress.

The oldest daughter, Hadley, at her college graduation, reveals to her mother and sisters that she is in love with her boyfriend of three years, is now engaged and is also pregnant by him. Meeting the boyfriend's parents for first time at the graduation lunch, Terry makes a drunken fool of herself.

At Hadley's wedding reception, Terry has an argument with Shep that ends with Terry slapping him. Shep reveals that he likes younger women because they're fun and happy, and he would never date a miserable, angry woman like Terry.

One day after an outing, Popeye asks Denny if he'll marry her mom. Denny says she’s too complicated.

That night Denny tells Terry what Popeye asked and Terry is furious. She screams at Denny that he’s trying to use her daughter to get to her. She locks herself in the bathroom. Denny kicks down the bathroom door and explains to her that she’s got it all wrong. He also states that he has tolerated Terry's moodiness and rages because he knows she’s in pain but he is no longer willing to put up with it. He leaves and goes back to his own house.

A few months later, Hadley announces she’s pregnant again. Andy dumps Shep, not realizing that their intimate conversation can be heard by others in the radio studio.

While at a supermarket Terry meets Shep who says that perhaps the two of them should have some drinks together and 'talk things out'. Terry refuses. After discovering this, Denny confronts Shep and fires him.

Later, Terry, stepping out of her shower, is stunned to find Denny offering a drink. She asks him to stay for dinner. They reconcile and Denny later joins the family for an evening at the ballet in Detroit. Emily again asks Terry if she has called her father; Terry says that now that she is well, there is no need to call.

The real estate deal mentioned earlier in the film goes through and construction of new houses begins. One of the workers is working through some brush and steps on an old well cover and almost falls in. Horrified by what he sees inside, the worker summons Denny, who looks into the well and is shocked by what he sees. Examining a wallet that was also found in the well, Denny discovers that it belongs to Terry’s husband. Terry, who has come out to investigate, insists on looking into the well and sees her husband's body. It is at that moment that Terry realizes that her husband never left her. Apparently, he had fallen in the well while walking the property and drowned.

The movie ends where it began with the women (accompanied by Denny) leaving her husband's funeral. Terry, although sad over the loss of her husband, begins to feel peaceful and looks at her four daughters with pride.

Trivia

* At the wedding scene, the band plays "Try a Little Tenderness" and after singing the first couple of lines, the singer hums, as if he forgot the lyrics. This is a cross-movie joke as this was the same song featured in "Bull Durham", where Kevin Costner's character gets upset with another player for not knowing the words to "Try a Little Tenderness"

* Another cross-movie reference... When Terry goes to Denny's house to clean, she holds up a poster of Denny in a Detroit Tigers uniform. Costner played a Detroit Tiger in the movie "For Love of the Game".

* The character played by Kevin Costner is loosely based on former Detroit Tigers Denny McLain and Kirk Gibson. Mike Binder was born and raised in Birmingham, Michigan and often incorporates Metro Detroit or the Tigers into his films.

* The movie was filmed in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

* Throughout the movie, Kevin Costner is seen wearing the same MA-1 bomber jacket he wore in "Bull Durham".

Cast

*Joan Allen — Terry Wolfmeyer
*Kevin Costner — Denny Davies
*Erika Christensen — Andy Wolfmeyer
*Keri Russell — Emily Wolfmeyer
*Alicia Witt — Hadley Wolfmeyer
*Evan Rachel Wood — Lavender "Popeye" Wolfmeyer
*Mike Binder— Adam "Shep" Goodman
*Tom Harper — David Junior
*Dane Christensen — Gorden Reiner
*Danny Webb — Grey Wolfmeyer
*Magdalena Manville — Darlene
*Suzanne Bertish — Gina
*David Firth — David Senior
*Rod Woodruff — Dean Reiner
*Stephen Greif — Emily's doctor
*Arthur Penhallow — Himself

Awards and nominations

Awards won

*Chicago Film Critics Association: (1) Best Actress - Joan Allen
*San Francisco Film Critics Circle: (1) Best Supporting Actor - Kevin Costner

Nominations

*Online Film Critics Society: (1) Best Actress - Joan Allen
*Satellite Awards: (2) Best Musical or Comedy Actor - Kevin Costner, Best Musical or Comedy Actress - Joan Allen

External links

*imdb title|id=0365885|title=The Upside of Anger
* [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/upside_of_anger/ "The Upside of Anger"] at Rotten Tomatoes
* [http://www.mikebinder.net/ Clips] at Mike Binder's personal site