Reign Over Me

Reign Over Me stars Adam Sandler (Charlie Fineman) and Don Cheadle (Alan Johnson), so immediately people might think it’s going to be a comedy because of Sandlers past roles, but it’s not. After I saw Sandler in the movie Spanglish (which I liked), I realized how great of a serious actor he can be. (Here’s the trailer for Spanglish.)

I didn’t really know what the movie was about before I picked it up, but I saw it had “Two thumbs up“, and I think Cheadle is a GREAT actor, so I got. After you are introduced to Fineman, you can pretty much tell something is mentally wrong with him. Johnson is a dentist who was Fineman’s roommate in dental school. He hasn’t seen him in years and he tries to talk to him, but Fineman doesn’t remember who he is, and Johnson is aware of a tragedy that happened to Fineman’s family involving a plane crash and that is all we are told for a while. As Johnson tries to get him to open up, there are set backs and he gets really angry and confronting. While watching it, I was thinking, just let it go and leave him alone, but they keep coming back to each other as you will see. Johnson is Fineman only “friend” and seems to have been the only person he has opened up to for years, since the tragedy. It’s not a quick flowing movie, but the acting is excellent and I just loved watching the two develop a great camaraderie. Johnson is married to Janeane (Jada Pinkett Smith), and they have two children and he is also trying to find his way with his wife. They have a relationship where there is a lack of communication, go figure:) Johnson knows that Charlie needs professional help and that help is something he can’t give him. We find out what memory Charlie has blocked out and doesn’t want to talk about and it is truly tragic. Very emotional. Something that has affected all of us in a different way, and I can honestly see why he went through what he went through. Everybody goes through tragedies in their lives and everybody handles it a different way, but why block out the people we loved the most? I found it to be a very emotional movie with many ups and downs. I loved the acting and I think if you watch this movie you will be surprised at just how good Sandler is. I consider Cheadle to be one of the best actors around, because he’s so good at all the variety of roles he plays. This isn’t a family movie, but something for adults to check out because of the depth. I think you should give this movie a shot, because you will see how important communication is to us understanding what people are going through.

Reign Over Me Trailer