The Upside of Anger or Just in case your childhood didnt make you angry this movie will make you feel it should have or The Angry Side of Anger.


So as I write this I am currently watching The Upside of Anger, proving two points; one is that it is nearly impossible for me to turn off a movie. Second is that it appears that a movie about an angry single parent is only making me angry with the movie, further proving my first point.

A tragedy is a story in which the characters are seemingly welded to a track which leads to a downfall, events that are tragic in nature. Welded to a track that takes the characters in a direction that it is often painful to watch. Still, and Shakespeare proved this, the choices that most tragic characters seem at the moment logical to the audience, the sign of a good tragedy, usually.

However and now I am just rambling...and yes ranting just a bit...see above comment about anger. A bad tragedy is one where illogical characters make illogical and all-together painful and unmotivated decisions that no logical person would make.

In the end I feel that The Upside of Anger is director Mike Binder's flawed love letter to his broken childhood. I was hoping for some redemption from the cast, especially Erika Christensen who I was very much impressed by in Traffic but even she felt like little more than a plastic doll powering through awkward situations and horrendous dialogue. Kevin Costner is decent, Diane Lane is decent but majorly and almost completely flawed. Mr. Binder I thought we were supposed to feel compassion for at the characters. I do not share your view that all men are slobs and all women are angry because of it.

I am currently looking up statistics and wondering as to why it took 5 production companies to put together this $13 million film. For the record this is the first movie I have walked away from in as long as I can remember.