Reign Over Me


Any movie with that name is going to get my attention. Then I saw that the leading roles are played by Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle and that’s all it took to get onto my “must see” list. Fortunately it was on the “must see” list for the Gotham Gal and my kids too. So we went to see Reign Over Me last week.

The plot of the movie is pretty basic. Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle’s characters (Charlie and Alan, respectively) were roommates and friends in dental school. After graduating, they lost touch with each other as they built practices and families. Charlie lost his entire family in Sept 11th. Alan sees him cruising down the street on his scooter several years later, rekindles their friendship, which leads to the crux of the story.

I suspect you all get where this story leads. It’s a good story and a good movie.

But what makes this movie even more moving (and it’s pretty moving, the Gotham Gal came close to flooding the theater) is the way two songs steal the show.

Charlie is a music fanatic. He plays drums in a punk band and collects vinyl. He walks around with Bose headphones on his head, pushing out reality in favor of the world he’s comfortable with.

And the two songs that he uses to push away reality at critical moments in the movie are:

Drive All Night by Bruce Springsteen

and

Love, Reign O’er Me by The Who

The version in the movie is the Pearl Jam version, but I prefer the original Who version, so that’s why I linked to it.

These two songs about the power of love and its protective and healing powers are central to the story and provide the musical backdrop to the climactic moments in the movie. They are powerful songs and I’ve been listening to both of them a lot since I saw the movie.

I don’t think I’ll ever hear Drive All Night again without thinking of Charlie and his Bose headphones. And that’s OK with me.

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April 3rd, 2007
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Viewing 3 Comments

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    Well, it's fascinating - becuase The Who famously produced Quadrophenia as a movie with LOM as the soundtrack of the violent ending. (Sting played the lead Mod, as I recall).
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    Time to revisit my Who records. It's actually been sometime now.

    I'm undecided about the movie, but would never rule out seeing it. (Yeah, the easy way out: rental.)
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    I wanted to like this movie. Even the New Yorker gave it a decent review. But I would not recommend that anyone see this film. The script was written by someone who has seen way too much television and feel-good Hollywood films. There are so many unbelievable aspects to this movie, I don't know where to begin.

    First of all the idea that Don Cheadle’s character, Alan, never had any contact with Charlie during the decade leading up to 9/11 makes no sense: they were college roommates and friends who were both practicing dentists in Manhattan, but Alan only thinks about contacting him five years after 9/11 because he sees him on the street? And why does Alan have no other male friends? Why do we never see him discussing Charlie with anyone other than his wife?

    The beautiful but totally crazy woman who threatens to bring sexual assault charges on Alan for spurning her advances in his dental office is invited back to his office to discuss the problem alone! (Yea, right.) Then we discover that, not only does this crazy woman have the same therapist as Charlie (how clever) but Alan and this therapist set Charlie up with crazy woman at the end of the film -- despite the fact that Charlie has millions of dollars to exploit, and the woman has already proven to be capable of blackmail.

    But, you see, in Hollywood world, Charlie just needs to get laid, then all his problems will be solved! Of course anyone who has taken Psych 101 knows that people suffering from such severe depression and post traumatic stress disorder are in no shape for any kind of relationship.

    Charlie pulls a gun on a police officer (suicide by cop) and spends only three days in psychiatric evaluation, and is released. This is laughable. Here we have an emotional wreck of a man who has retreated the maturity of his teenage years, who cannot even sit in court without headphones to block out images of his family --- and the judge tells his ex-parents in-law that he'll let them decide his fate. The judge also goes out of his way to insult the lawyer representing New York State as well as Charlie's best friend and legal guardian for no reason.

    I wish the director cared about presenting a realistic drama about devastating loss. But this film was a waste of Cheadle and Sandler's talents. Who the hell approves these scripts anyway?

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