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 Enjoyable Insight Into Anger Aug 11, 2009
CONTAINS SPOILERS
Movies can be reviewed in many ways. "What was this film compared to what I expected?" "What was this film compared to what I enjoy?" "What was this film compared to what I think the producers / director intended?" Always keep that in mind when reading reviews. As I began watching this movie, I wasn't enjoying it, because a) it wasn't what I expected and b) it didn't seem like the sort of thing I usually enjoy. But when I began to understand what this movie was really all about, I loved it.
Anger Management is nothing less than a very enjoyable, funny insight into the nature of all anger. Psychologists and spiritual types alike will tell you that all anger we feel toward others is ultimately anger we feel toward ourselves. That can often be hard to swallow when we're feeling hacked off at someone for something they did to us. But what this film shows us, gradually, and in a very sneaky way, is that most of us are a lot angrier inside than we care to admit, and that, in truth, the person we're most angry with is ourselves. And only when we deal with that can our lives get better and happier.
Sandler plays a typical hard working Joe (Dave Buznik) who's having a very hard time getting ahead in the world. No matter how hard he tries to please his boss, nothing is ever enough, and he's consistently passed over for opportunities to advance. And he's beginning to have doubts about his girlfriend, played by Marisa Tomei, as her best friend just happens to be a guy with the largest equipment Dave has ever seen. Despite set back after set back, kind hearted Dave persists, swallowing his pride, putting up with his boss and his love frustrations, hoping some day things will turn around for him.
Then, one day, quite calmly, he asks for a set of movie headsets on a long flight and ends up being arrested for assault and battery. He's done nothing more than touch the flight attendant on the arm and calmly repeat his request for a headset, and still, he ends up in court. Assuming that things will be quickly cleared up as he has actually done nothing wrong, Dave is shocked when the situation blows up in his face. In a heartbeat, Dave's simple, if depressing life, has been turned completely upside down, and he's facing a choice between a prison term or living each day with one of the most annoying therapists ever to walk the face of the earth.
After just a few days of living with Jack Nicholson's character, Dr. Buddy Rydell, Dave is beginning to wonder if prison might not have been the better choice. Try as he might to comply with the extreme and completely unconventional demands of his therapy (such as stopping a car in the middle of a bridge in rush hour traffic to sing "I Feel Pretty"), it seems more to Dave that his therapy is specifically designed to make him crazy and ruin his life than to help with some imaginary anger problem he never had in the first place.
The movie climbs through a series of increasingly proposterous situations as Dr. Rydell seems bent on stealing Dave's girl and leaving him jobless and penniless. On the verge of losing everything, Dave finally snaps and really does become angry ... and with good reason. Rydell HAS been trying to ruin his life and steal his girl ... to help Dave admit to being angry, perhaps for the first time in his life. Dave is the kind of guy who has sucked up other people's abuse all his life, never allowing himself to get angry, even when he had reason to. Dave HAS an anger management problem ... he doesn't allow himself to get angry or to admit what he's angry about. We think of anger management as a class for people who can't control their anger, and who unleash it too often in inappropriate situations. This movie ... surprise ... is about someone whose problem is quite the opposite. Only when Dave finally gets angry at how completely out of control his life is getting, does he discover his REAL problem ... he's been letting people walk on him all his life. And the person he most needed to get angry with was himself ... for letting his life become such a mess while trying to live up to the expectations of everyone around him while forgetting about himself.
In the end, it turns out that everything that's happened since Dave sat down on the airplane has been a set up. His loving girl, Linda (Marisa Tomei), set the whole thing up with Dr. Rydell to help push Dave "gently" over the edge and help him finally get angry enough at himself to stop letting other people push him around.
As someone who suffered from this same problem for most of my life, when the point of this movie got to me, I was utterly blown away. I never saw it coming. When I was younger, I used to let people walk all over me, making my own life a living hell by allowing others to make of my life what they wanted, then blaming them for what my life had become. NO one can make anything out of your life other than what you want, unless you let them. And if we choose to let other people push us around, we are allowing them to have our way with us ... and that choice ... our choice ... is what makes our life a mess. Only when we recirect our hidden anger away from other people and get fed up ourselves with our own willingness to be walked on can we finally start enjoying the kind of life we always wanted all along.
If you don't get the deeper meaning of this movie, it can seem to be a very silly, stupid flick, with one apparently crazy scene after another stacking up to a huge pile of silliness. But it all has a point ... just how completely stupid will some of us let our lives become before we finally scream ENOUGH!!! and stand up for ourselves and begin making out lives what we want them to be.
Like many of the movies with which Sandler has been involved for the past several years, Anger Management is a sleeper. I was never a fan of Sandler in his younger days, but I have a ton of respect for him now. His recent work consistently serves up deep insights into the nature of the human heart, cloaked in what appears to be mindless silliness that is anything but. Sandler's genius is helping us learn about ourselves while keeping us laughing. It's brilliant, and I thank him for it.
"Fran, isn't that usually a girls name?" Aug 04, 2009
Funny movie about a man Adam Sandler, who is sentenced to a month long comical torture of anger management. This has to be one of my favs from Sandler, and Nicholson. The movie would definetly not be complete with out the rest of the cast either, including Meatball, how cute is he?? Will Buznick ever get out of anger management, or will he go to prison for a long time?? You will have to watch to find out. One of Sandlers last funny films, what happened??
 The movie will make you laugh. The ending will make you cry Jul 29, 2009
Anger Management: 6/10: Having a bad ending has torpedoed more than one film experience. The Village's twist was a groaner and the last scene of The Last Samurai knocked it down a rung or two. in a comedy however the end shouldnt matter.
Comedy is about laughter during the journey not the stories conclusion. None of our best comedies are known for their finales. Meet the Parents left with a comparative whimper, There's Something about Mary's ending is at best forgettable, and the bombastic over the top noise of say The Blues Brothers or Caddyshack certainly wasn't for everyone. (The exception to this rule is the wonderful Stay Puff Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters)
Unlike thrillers or drama, comedy rarely invests enough in the plot to begin with for the ending to matter all that much. In addition, an Adam Sandler comedy, let us face it, has less plot than most. Alternatively, at the very least, it has the same plot and characters over and over again. Sandler after all is the Jim Varney of Long Island nerds. Therefore, to create a disaster this momentous you first need an hour and change of good comedy (rare enough esp. with Mr. Sandler on board) then you will need an ending so stupendously bad it erases the laughter.
First the good news. This movie has some quite funny bits. The bad news? Well lets start with the last 15 minutes or so absolutely feel good romantic awfulness with enough celebrity cameos that could sink the Titanic, wipe out any goodwill one feels towards former Mayor Giulliani of New York and embarrass one to be a Yankee fan. Add on a plot device at the end that would not be out of place in a Deanna Durbin film and let the jaw dropping awfulness commence.
The last 15 minutes aside, this movie has some funny bits. Even stupid stuff like sweaters for overweight cats worked for me. Now that is rare. The set-up is pure gold and the cast is great.
If anything, Sandler is easily the weakest of the bunch. (Luis Guzman and John Turturro's characters needed their own movie and it was great seeing Jack be Jack again after that slog that was About Schmidt. Sandler knows how to do cruel. Anger Management was such a good concept and had such funny execution that it demanded a dark cruel outburst of energy at the end not indescribably painful schmaltz.
 Hilarious Angry Fun! Jul 06, 2009
I have always liked this movie. One of Adam's best. Jack interprets a hilarious character. Well remastered, good sound. No matter how many times I have watched it, I always sing "I feel pretty".... La la la la la...
Good Movie Jun 30, 2009
I liked this movie a lot. Sandler and Nicholson are pretty funny together. I liked almost all the supporting characters also, especially John Turturro. He steals a lot of the scenes he's in.
This is just a good light-hearted movie, that's fun to watch after work or just on your day off.
It's one of sandler's better movie, besides for the wedding singer, and punch drunk love.
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