The Upside Of Anger [DVD]

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Product Description ------------------- Family comedy-drama starring Joan Allen as Terry Wolfmeyer, an affluent and sharp-witted suburban Detroit wife and mother who goes from a paragon of sweetness to a volcano of rage in the wake of her husband's desertion; he has apparently jetted off to Sweden with his Swedish secretary. Barely holding it together for her four daughters, Terry fitfully adjusts to his absence, while trying to avoid romantic involvement with her neighbour Denny Davies (Kevin Costner), a retired baseball player and radio personality who shares her love of the all-day cocktail hour. .co.uk Review ------------- The of two lost souls finding something unavoidably necessary in each other carries The Upside of Anger through it pleasant episodic drift. When Terry Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen ( /gp/search?search-alias=dvd&field-keywords=Joan%20Allen+-ntsc )) realizes that her husband won't be coming home again, she hits the skids and the bottle, leaving her four thunderstruck daughters (Alicia Witt, Keri Russell, Erika Christensen, and Evan Rachel Wood) to fend for themselves while she fends off the attentions of concerned neighbor Denny Davies (Kevin Costner ( /gp/search?search-alias=dvd&field-keywords=Kevin%20Costner+-ntsc )). Writer/director Mike Binder (who has a good bit as Costner's sleazy producer) juggles too many subplots in this comedy/drama--his charming young actresses are all but wasted--then tosses in a wrongheaded climactic twist and terrible explanatory narration from young Wood. But the two leads do career-best turns: If you've given up hope on Costner, you'll be surprised by his shaggy dog appeal as a perpetually soused radio show host/faded ex-baseball star, while Allen's boozy, brittle performance is so remarkable that even her comic drunkenness is nuanced. --Steve Wiecking