Reign Over Me

Review in a Hurry:  Old college roommates Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler reconnect years after Sandler loses his wife and kids and starts looking like Bob Dylan. The most interesting thing we learn? Cheadle used to sleepwalk in the nude. Uh, TMI...

The Bigger Picture:  Sandler gets props for moving beyond the doofus roles (take note, Jon Heder), and Reign allows him to show emotional range. But the tone-shifting script also uses post-traumatic stress disorder as an excuse for Sandler to do his familiar man-child act, at least for the first half.

See, Sandler's family perished on 9-11, and the once successful dentist has gone into a deep denial/depression. He has also suppressed memories, so he doesn't recognize former bud Cheadle when they meet on the street. The timing is fortuitous (and contrived), as both guys need a friend—Sandler for obvious reasons, and Cheadle 'cause he's overwhelmed with issues at home and the office.

The two stay out all night, play videogames, see movies and rock out to tunes. It's Wounded Guys Gone Wild!  At Cheadle's urging, Sandler sees therapist Liv Tyler, but then, in the laborious third act, may be institutionalized by the courts.

Sandler's personality swings between rage, playfulness and even seeming autism, and when he finally dredges up the past, he gets his big tearful monologue. But because his inaccessible character feels more like a writer's pawn than a real person, the frequent outbursts and climactic catharsis lack emotional punch.

Writer-director Mike Binder—whose superior The Upside of Anger featured terrific, complex female characters—ironically bombs out in the women department. Jada Pinkett Smith is relegated to the disapproving wife role, whispery Tyler gets little to do, and Saffron Burrows' sexually obsessed patient is funny but not completely credible. Which applies to much of Reign.

The 180—a Second Opinion:  It's always wonderful to see Melinda Dillon, who cameos here as Sandler's mother-in-law. She's the greatest mom ever, whether trying to rescue her kid from aliens in Close Encounters or just trying to get her kid to eat dinner ("Mommy's little piggy!") in A Christmas Story.