A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: The Upside of Anger

Date Viewed: 5/10/05

Details:

Joan Allen

Kevin Costner

Erika Christensen

Evan Rachel Wood

Keri Russell

Alicia Witt

Director: Mike Binder

Score: 1/2

The Review: Think of this as the next in a long series of baseball movies starring Kevin Costner -- well, sort of.

Upside is a surprisingly watchable semi-tearjerker drama about an abandoned housewife (Allen) with four teen-age daughters, and a neighborly perpetually-drunk ex-baseball star and talk-radio jock host (Costner). But while it might be characterized a tearjerker by formula -- after all, it starts out at a funeral -- it is in no way a rewrite of the Book of Job, something I'm overly sensitive to. The situations that evolve, the time that passes, how the daughters grow up -- all this done without artifice or excessive soppiness. And there is a significant thread of humor, not just to relieve the tension, but as part of how the characters deal with life and with each other.

Be patient; the title is explained, but only in the final minutes of the film.

(24-Apr-05)

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