The Upside of Anger

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The Upside of Anger
Image:UpsideofAnger.jpg
Promotional movie poster for The Upside of Anger
Directed by Mike Binder
Produced by Jack Binder
Alex Gartner
Sammy Lee
Written by Mike Binder
Starring Joan Allen
Kevin Costner
Erika Christensen
Evan Rachel Wood
Keri Russell
Alicia Witt
Mike Binder
Dane Christensen
Music by Alexandre Desplat
Kevin Sargent
Cinematography Richard Greatrex
Editing by Steve Edwards
Robin Sales
Distributed by New Line Cinema
Release date(s) March 11, 2005
Running time 118 mins.
Country Image:Flag of the United States.svg
IMDb profile

The Upside of Anger is a 2005 drama/comedy/romance written and directed by Mike Binder. Set in the Detroit area, it stars Joan Allen, Kevin Costner and Evan Rachel Wood amongst others. It received a 72% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

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

Contents

[edit] Plot

The story begins at a funeral where Terry Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen) stands beside Denny Davies (Kevin Costner). Along side them is Terry’s daughter Lavender (Evan Rachel Wood), nicknamed “Popeye”, who narrates and says that her mom wasn’t always angry. In fact she used to be a very nice woman, everyone loved her.

The scene cuts to three years earlier where Terry is at the breakfast table with her four daughters, Popeye, Emily (Keri Russell), Hadley (Alicia Witt) and Andy (Erika Christensen). She breaks down and tells her daughters that her husband, their father, has left them. He’s been gone a couple of days and she knows that he left to be with his former secretary in Sweden.

After breakfast, while watching war reports on TV, Denny (holding his always present Budweiser can) knocks on the door. Terry doesn’t want to see her husband’s friend and avoids him. Denny finally talks his way in and Terry tells him the news. Denny is shocked. He actually came by just to discuss their backyard property, which Denny is trying to purchase to build houses.

Denny, a former baseball star, hosts a radio talk show where he’ll talk about anything except baseball. The rest of his day is primarily drinking and signing baseballs stacked in his house. Denny and Terry decide to just sit around, watch the news and drink, then drink some more.

In the kitchen, the girls are fixing dinner. Unfortunately their dog starts nibbling on the chicken and just before they throw it out, Denny is invited over for dinner. He loves the chicken and the girls try not to laugh. They ask if he’s coming back tomorrow and he say yeah, as long as there’s great chicken like that. Right here is where Denny becomes very close and eventually is almost a part of the family.

Each of the girls has their own plot line. The oldest daughter, Hadley, away at college, falls in love, becomes pregnant then engaged (in that order). Meeting the boyfriend's parents at a country club, Terry makes a drunken fool of herself.

Andy had decided not to go to college and Denny gets her a job at his radio station as a production assistant. She actually gets the job because Denny’s producer, Adam "Shep" Goodman (Mike Binder), a lecherous 40-something man is instantly attracted to her. One night Terry walks into Andy’s bedroom only to find her in bed with Shep.

The next day everyone is at the dinner table, including Denny and Shep. Shep loudly slurps his soup, Terry glares at him. The longer she glares the higher the tension. Finally, Shep’s head explodes sending blood everywhere. Terry is covered in splattered blood where she now has a very happy look on her face. Of course it was all just in her imagination.

Eventually, Hadley is married and at the reception Terry has it out with Shep in a great argument 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.

Popeye is attending a private high school. She is attracted to a cute guy and her sister tells her to tell him that she's from a broken home – guys like that. She does but really gets no response. Eventually she has him over to work on a video for her film class She leans over to kiss him but he just turns away. He responds, "I'm 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. Terry and Denny are awakened one night with news that Emily is in the hospital. Terry rushes to be with her while Denny stays home to be with Popeye in case she wakes up. The doctors are unsure if her problem is just stress or maybe even cancer. It turns out it was just stress.

Popeye and Denny make a trip with her gay boyfriend and his dad to a bungee jump. We learn that the boyfriend had always bragged about jumping but he’s actually too scared to jump. The dad calls the boy "a watcher". Denny, making him feel better, says he is too. On the way home, 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’s put up with all her crap because he knows she’s in pain but it’s got to stop. He leaves and goes back to his own house.

A few weeks later while Terry is trying to have a stress free dinner with her kids and grandkid, Hadley announces she’s pregnant again. Andy dumps Shep, not realizing that his sex talk can be heard by others in the radio studio.

While at a supermarket Terry meets Shep who says that maybe the two of them should have some drinks together and talk things out. Terry refuses and is pissed. At the radio station, Denny yells at Shep for "hitting on" Terry. He fires Shep as his producer.

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. At the ballet, Terry sees Emily on stage in Terry's mind. Popeye's voiceover, about fear and anger, leads us to the backyard of their home.

Cut to Terry’s backyard. Work has finally begun on Denny’s project. One of the workers is working through some brush and steps on an old well cover and almost falls in. As he looks inside, Denny comes running nearby. He has a flashlight and looks inside where he finds a body. A search of his wallet shows that it is Terry’s husband. Terry insists on looking into the well. She is clearly stunned. She realizes that her husband never left her. Instead, he had fallen in the well while walking the property three years earlier. Terry walks away, crying quietly. She falls to her hands and knees. Her crying grows louder.

Cut to Terry lying in bed, awake; she spoons with Denny. He responds.

Cut to the rainy funeral, Terry grieving next to Denny. Terry looks across at her daughters and sees them as their younger selves. Turning from the open grave, her daughters comfort her. We see her walking silently through her house, after the funeral, greeting guests, watching Denny sign a baseball. Mom sits with her three oldest daughters, looking at the woods. Denny joins them. Popeye finishes her narration of her video, describing the upside of anger as "the person you become."

[edit] 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".

[edit] Cast

[edit] Awards and nominations

[edit] Awards won

[edit] Nominations

[edit] External links

it:Litigi d'amore ja:ママが泣いた日 nl:The Upside of Anger pt:The Upside of Anger

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