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New York City dentist Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) has a pretty good—yet mildly irritating—life. He has a great practice as a dentist, doing veneers for vain Manhattanites, but the other doctors in the practice treat him like an outsider—and he occasionally has single women making appointments just to come in and hit on him. He always lets him know that he has a wonderful wife and two daughters at home—but that wonderful wife, Janeane (Jada Pinkett Smith), tends to be a little clingy. She makes him do puzzles and take photography classes with her. He’s not happy, but he’s also not unhappy enough to actually pay Dr. Oakhurst (Liv Tyler), the therapist in his building, for help. Instead, he just hangs out by her door and asks her questions as she walks to her car.
But one day Alan runs into his old college roommate, Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler), and he’s reminded that his life isn’t all that bad. Charlie’s wife and three daughters were killed in one of the planes on 9/11, and now Charlie has nothing. He has no family and no friends. He has no job. He spends his time either renovating his kitchen or playing video games.
Despite the challenges they face, the two rebuild their friendship. And though, at first, Alan thinks he’s helping Charlie, he begins to realize that Charlie’s helping him just as much.
Though it definitely has its touching moments, Reign Over Me needed to be reigned in a bit. Instead of telling a solid story about love and loss and learning to move on, it jumps around, focusing on side plots that didn’t necessarily need to be included in the final script. Sometimes it focuses on Alan and Charlie. But then sometimes it focuses on a lawsuit that one of Alan’s amorous patients is threatening (which was a little hard for me to believe, since I see dentists more as terrifying, drill-toting monsters than objects of desire). And then it talks about his situation with his colleagues. Or his relationship with his wife. And while the sub-plots could add something to the story in small doses, they’re given more time and focus than they should, and they end up taking away from the strength of the real story—and making it about a half hour longer than it should be.
On the bright side, Cheadle gives another solid performance as Dr. Johnson. And though Sandler’s performance is a bit shaky at times—occasionally crossing that fine line between convincing and overdone—he does a decent job, considering his outrageous comedy background. He may not be at his best all the time, but when he is, he’s really quite compelling—and he may even have you digging for the tissues.
Had Reign Over Me been reigned in a bit, it could have been a powerful film. Instead, it tries to cover too much—and it just ends up feeling drawn-out and disorganized.
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