Anger
Management Will Have YouLeaving the Theater Happy
Anger
Management Will Have YouAnyone who has ever driven anywhere with me knows that I work out a lot of
my anger issues and negative emotions on the road. I think that's the way it
is with many people who live in today's go-go vehicular culture that is the
Baltimore-Washington, D.C. corridor. Both Charm City and the Nation's Capital
have what are referred to as "beltways," which are essentially highways
that loop around the two cities letting you off at points north, south, east,
and west. They really should be called "rageways." If you stand on
just about any overpass overlooking any stretch of these thoroughfares during
the warm weather months, you'll hear engines zooming by mixed with drivers hurling
loads of expletives out their open windows.
Case in point, I was driving with my friend Jim a few weeks ago, and I inadvertently
cut off another driver while changing lanes. The guy took it personally and
followed me for several miles thereafter. When he finally was able to pull alongside
me, I looked over, and there he was just screaming at me like Hitler. It was
quite hilarious. So we started to laugh at him, which just pissed him off all
the more.
After a while, Jim asked, "What do you think he's saying?"
I replied, "I can't be sure. But I think it's 'Sig Heil! Sig Heil!"
Fortunately, the next turn-off was mine, and I banked sharply off the freeway
so that he was unable to follow. On one hand, it was a little scary. On the
other, I had to be more than a little impressed over the pure anger the guy
was exhibiting. He was getting it all out. You gotta respect that on some level,
especially when there are so many people in this world keeping so much bottled
up.
Take Adam Sandler's character, Dave Buznick, in the new comedy Anger
Management. Dave has a ton of inner rage, but he has no outlet for it. He
keeps it all inside. As a result, he walks around in a permanent state of inadequacy,
trying to avoid confrontation wherever possible. But an incident on an airplane
in which a flight attendant mistakenly perceives Dave's request for headphones
as a veiled threat sends the poor, misunderstood guy to court where he is sentenced
to undergo anger management counseling.
Into Dave's life comes Dr. Buddy Rydell, played by the great Jack Nicholson.
As reserved and introverted as Jack (I call him by his first name in real life,
so I might as well do it here in my review) was in About Schmidt, the
structure and plot of Anger Management lets him cut loose and lets him
find all sorts of Classic-Jack freaky. Buddy enrolls Dave in his anger management
group therapy class, which is filled with a menagerie of off-center and rather
volatile patients. Chief among them is Chuck (the also-great John Turturro),
a self-described half-German/ half-Irish/half-Mexican military veteran who still
suffers from flashbacks of the invasion of Grenada ("I scream myself to
sleep," he rages at one point). Following another mishap that has Dave
facing a prison sentence, Buddy moves in with him as a more intensive form of
therapy, and the fireworks really start to fly.
This is a good comedy, folks. It helps that nearly every single person in the
film, from Marisa Tomei as Dave's girlfriend to Kevin Nealon as
Dave's idiot lawyer, looks like they are just having a blast. Sandler really
seems to create environments for his friends and co-stars to relax and to not
be afraid to look silly. The pairing of Sandler and Nicholson works surprisingly
well, with Nicholson not afraid to go way, way over the top in several moments
to sell even the silliest of gags. There is a scene on a bridge where he orders
Sandler to sing "I Feel Pretty" that should not work. It should have
been embarrassing for both men. But the two pull it off like they've been a
comedy team for 20 years. I would love to see these two guys together again
in another flick!
Sandler produced the movie and included many of the same behind-the-scenes talents
who have helped him in most of his other movies, except for Paul Thomas Anderson's
great Punch-Drunk Love. Sandler still can't help but throw in several
dozen penis jokes. His films are still the oddest blend of the genuinely crude
and the genuinely sweet. And he still finds big laughs in seeing people get
punched, kicked, and gang-tackled. But having this time surrounded himself with
actors like Nicholson, Turturro, and Tomei--not to mention Luis Guzman,
John C. Reilly, and Heather Graham in smaller roles (what no Philip
Seymour Hoffman?!)--the Waterboy star is showing signs of maturing.
Additional kudos should go to screenwriter David Dorfman, who gives the
various talents plenty of memorable lines and funny character moments.
There are even a few scenes that echo famous anger moments from real life. I'm
thinking specifically of that great tabloid incident a few years ago when Jack
Nicholson got into that fender bender out in Southern California. Instead of
waiting for the cops, the three-time Oscar winner took out a golf club and started
wailing on the car of the guy who had just hit him, all the while screaming,
"How 'bout I take a chunk outta YOUR cheesecake?!" In Anger Management,
Jack chooses between a three-wood and a Louisville Slugger before going to town
on a Lexus that has boxed him in. And I haven't even gone into the cameos from
such notorious hotheads as Bobby Knight and John McEnroe.
As directed by Peter Segal, Anger Management is a winningly silly
and even charming comedy. If life has got you feeling a little stressed out
lately, this might just be the movie to turn that frown upside down.
Anger Management is rated PG-13 for language, comic violence,
and some crude sexual content.
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