Reign Over Me

Last updated
Reign Over Me
ReignPoster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Mike Binder
Written byMike Binder
Produced by Jack Binder
Michael Rotenberg
Starring
CinematographyRuss Alsobrook
Edited bySteve Edwards
Jeremy Roush
Music by Rolfe Kent
Production
companies
Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing
Release dates
  • March 22, 2007 (2007-03-22)(Australia)
  • March 23, 2007 (2007-03-23)(United States)
Running time
124 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20 million [1]
Box office$22.2 million [1]

Reign Over Me is a 2007 American buddy drama film written and directed by Mike Binder, produced by his brother Jack Binder, and starring Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett Smith, Liv Tyler, Donald Sutherland, Saffron Burrows, and Mike Binder. The film follows the story of former college roommates and old friends Alan and Charlie, the latter of whom is struggling with depression after the death of his wife and daughters in the September 11 attacks. This was also Melinda Dillon's final film acting role before retiring from acting later that same year and her death in 2023.

Contents

Distributed by Columbia Pictures, the film was theatrically released on March 23, 2007, and on DVD and Blu-ray on October 9, 2007. It is the first of two films produced by Madison 23, a drama subsidiary of Sandler's Happy Madison Productions.

Plot

After the Twin Towers collapsed in 2001, Charlie Fineman lost everything important in his life. It has been five years since Charlie's wife and daughters died and now the once-successful and sociable man has become a withdrawn shadow of his former self. He does not discuss his loss, causing his in-laws to worry for his sanity, believing that he has struck the tragedy from his mind.

When Charlie suddenly runs into his former college roommate Alan Johnson together once again on a Manhattan street corner, Alan is shocked to see just how far his old friend has fallen. Charlie's hair is long and he wears a headset so that he can let the music drown of any mentions of his wife and children.

Though on the surface it would appear that Alan, a successful dentist, has it all, the pressures of a family and career have been weighing heavily on him. At a pivotal moment when Charlie and Alan both need a trusted friend, the restorative power of a rekindled friendship provides a lifeline needed to move forward.

Alan wants to bring Charlie out of his shell by convincing him to see a therapist. Barely communicative, he accepts it and ends every session after only a couple of minutes. His therapist says he needs to tell the story about his family to someone eventually and Charlie finally tells Alan his tragic story. Later on, following a suicide by cop attempt, Charlie ends up in a psychiatric ward.

Legal proceedings commence, and Judge David Raines must determine whether to commit Charlie to psychiatric care. After Charlie suffers a breakdown, Raines leaves the decision to Charlie's in-laws, asking them to think of what their daughter would want for him. Charlie approaches his in-laws in the lobby of the courthouse, stating that he does not carry pictures nor discuss his family because he sees them every day, in the faces of people walking down the street. They decide that he should not be committed; instead, Charlie moves to a new apartment, leaving behind the painful memories associated with his old place.

Alan visits Charlie in his new home and his wife calls and tells him "I love you and just want you to come home." The apartment's doorman brings out Charlie's scooter, telling Alan not to leave stuff lying around. He tells the doorman to take it back upstairs, but the doorman ignores him. Not knowing what to do, Alan rides home on the scooter.

Cast

Soundtrack

The many songs during the film include Bruce Springsteen's "Out in the Street" and "Drive All Night", "Simple Man" by Graham Nash, and a few songs by the Who, including the titular "Love, Reign o'er Me". The latter appears on the film's soundtrack, along with a cover version recorded specifically for the film by Pearl Jam.

Televised trailers featured the songs "Ashes" by English band Embrace, "All These Things That I've Done" by the Killers, "How to Save a Life" by the Fray, and "In This Life" by Chantal Kreviazuk.

The score was written by Rolfe Kent and orchestrated by Tony Blondal.

Reception

Box office

The film opened to $7,460,690 from 1,671 theaters, for an average of $4,465 per venue. Its last recorded weekend was April 27–29, 2007, with a final domestic gross of $19,661,987. It made another $2,560,321 internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $22,222,308, against its $20 million budget. [1]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 64% based on 153 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Reign Over Me is a charming, affecting tale of friendship and loss, with solid performances from Adam Sandler as a broken, grief-stricken man and Don Cheadle as his old friend and savior." [2] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [3] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A− on scale of A to F. [4] [5]

Lisa Schwarzbaum at Entertainment Weekly gave Reign Over Me a B− rating, calling the film "a strange, black-and-blue therapeutic drama equally mottled with likable good intentions and agitating clumsiness." She shared her own discomfort with seeing the September 11 attacks casually included as a plot device in a fictional dramedy, though praised the film's performances and story. [6] The New York Times found the film "maddeningly uneven", adding, "It's rare to see so many moments of grace followed by so many stumbles and fumbles, or to see intelligence and discretion undone so thoroughly by glibness and grossness. And it is puzzling, and ultimately draining, to see a film that waves the flag of honesty—Face your demons! Speak from your heart! Open up!—turn out to be so phony." [7]

The video gaming blog Kotaku praised Reign Over Me's inclusion of the video game Shadow of the Colossus , stating that it "must be one of the first Hollywood films, if not the first, to deal with games thematically and intelligently." [8]

In an interview with Vogue Magazine in 2017, when a reporter asked British actress Daisy Ridley her a question of the film that makes her cry the most, her response was "Reign Over Me with Adam Sandler". [9]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Reign Over Me (2007)". Box Office Mojo . Archived from the original on 10 May 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  2. ↑ "Reign Over Me". Rotten Tomatoes . 23 March 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-06-09. Retrieved 2020-08-05.
  3. ↑ "Reign Over Me Movie Reviews, Pictures". Metacritic . CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on November 13, 2011. Retrieved July 29, 2011.
  4. ↑ "REIGN OVER ME (2007) A-". CinemaScore . Archived from the original on 2018-12-20.
  5. ↑ Brandon Gray (March 26, 2007). "'TMNT' Sees Green on Crowded Weekend". Box Office Mojo . audience was 59 percent female and 60 percent over 25, while the CinemaScore was an "A-."
  6. ↑ Lisa Schwarzbaum. "Movie Review: Reign Over Me". Entertainment Weekly . Archived from the original on 2007-12-25. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
  7. ↑ Scott, A. O. (March 23, 2007). "Who Else but an Old Buddy Can Tell How Lost You Are?". The New York Times . Archived from the original on April 1, 2012. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
  8. ↑ Ashcraft, Brian (22 March 2007). "Feature: The Colossus and the Comedian". Kotaku . Archived from the original on 2017-01-29. Retrieved 2010-04-03.
  9. ↑ 73 Questions with Daisy Ridley | Vogue. Vogue Magazine . New York City: Vogue Magazine. February 17, 2018. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
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