Yesterday afternoon, Marcia and I watched “The Upside of Anger” starring Joan Allen and Kevin Costner.
I must be totally honest, though I am a bit of a Costner fan, the only reason I wanted to see this movie was because it was filmed in the Detroit area. Some of the scenes were even shot at WRIF, a famous radio station that I used to listen to while living in Detroit. Costner’s character is a former Detroit Tiger who now does a radio show. Also making a few appearances is the infamous Arthur Penhallow. To those of you in the Philly area reading this, Arthur P is to WRIF and Detroit rock radio what Pierre Robert is to WMMR and Philly rock radio. There were some issues too that I had with scenes at the radio station. Just before showing those scenes, there would always be a shot of the skyline of downtown Detroit, and even once a close-up of the Renaissance Center. WRIF, at least when I lived in the area, is/was based out of the suburb Southfield.
Anyways, enough of that. So what about the actual movie? Here a quick synopsis thanks to Amazon.Com:
The sight of two lost souls finding something unavoidably necessary in each other carries The Upside of Anger through it pleasant episodic drift. When Terry Wolfmeyer (Allen) realizes that her husband won’t be coming home again, she hits the skids and the bottle, leaving her four thunderstruck daughters (Alicia Witt, Keri Russell, Erika Christensen, and Evan Rachel Wood) to fend for themselves while she fends off the attentions of concerned neighbor Denny Davies (Costner).
Evan Rachel Wood’s character goes by the name of Popeye. She narrates a few small sections of the movie. At the start she says that here mom, played by Allen, was a really nice person, until the fateful day that she realized there her husband wasn’t coming home. Then she turned into a really angry woman. Now, I am not used to seeing Allen play angry. And boy can she. I think this may be an “under-the-radar” performance that she won’t be remembered for, but should be. She did a good job with a woman who’s world seems to be crumbling at her feet, and dealing with four daughters, three of them teenagers.
Costner did a rather good job, too. Costner, like a few other actors I know, seems to bring a lot of himself to each part. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between many of the characters he has played through his career. “Tin Cup” is one the few movies I can think of that there is little of the usual Costner type acting. This movie could be added to the list. Someone on Amazon described his character as a scruffy dog type. Good choice of words. He’s has a bit of that “Tin Cup” bravado, too.
I wasn’t expecting much from this movie. At times I laughed really hard. At times the tension and the pain were very well handled by all the actors. It turned into a nice surprise. Rather glad we took a chance on it.
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