Reign Over Me

This article is about the 2007 film. For the song by The Who, see Love, Reign over Me.
Reign Over Me
Distributed by Columbia Pictures, the film is rated R for language and some sexual references by the MPAA and was released on March 23, 2007. The film was released to DVD on October 9, 2007.

Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler) has completely shut himself off emotionally from the outside world. During the attacks that occurred on September 11th, he lost his wife, three daughters, and the family dog. By chance, Charlie is reunited with his old college roommate, Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle). Alan, a successful but unhappy dentist, recognizes Charlie's grief and attempts to rekindle their friendship and bring Charlie out of his depression.

Charlie uses noise-cancelling headphones and a disheveled, Bob Dylanesque appearance (poofy hair and an unstylish long jacket) to isolate himself from any contact or reminder of the upper middle-class world where he enjoyed life with his adoring family (a wife; daughters age 5, 7, and 9; and a poodle). He tools around Manhattan on a motorized scooter which he uses for quick getaways from unpleasant encounters.[1]

Johnson's situation is the inverse of Charlie's. Charlie gave up dentistry after 9/11, while Johnson leads a partnership with six dentists. Charlie maintains a disheveled appearance and hides in his apartment fiddling with his record collection, playing videogames, remodeling his kitchen or behind a drum kit in a seedy club playing rage rock; Johnson's grooming and apparel and demeanor are so attractive that women are constantly hitting on him at work. Charlie apparently only knows three people: his landlord, an exploitative bar owner and an accountant named Sugarman (Mike Binder), using his interaction with them to enable him to stay isolated. Johnson knows many people but is not emotionally close to any of them, not even his wife Janeane (Jada Pinkett Smith). He never listens to his daughters, gets blown off by his receptionist, and his dental partners refuse to back him when a patient named Donna Remar (Saffron Burrows) threatens a phony sexual harassment lawsuit after he rebuffed her sexual advances in his office. She later tells him, though, that she had gone through a rotten divorce, after she learned that her husband of ten years had cheated on her with another woman for the last five of them, and she has been since unable to recover from her emotional distress. Embarrassed about her sexual advances toward Alan, she drops the lawsuit.

When Johnson spots Charlie for the first time since their college days, it takes him two tries to connect. Johnson is surprised that Charlie doesn't recognize him, and it takes quite a bit of effort to convince him they were once friends. After Johnson is able to convince him, Charlie becomes enthusiastic and they rekindle their friendship, going on nightly outings in the city that upsets Johnson's wife.

Attempts by Johnson to bring up Charlie's dead family result in outbursts of rage and violence from him. The first time, in the seedy bar where Charlie plays the drums in a band, teetotaler Charlie demands "Who sent you?" and throws root beer in Johnson's face. The second time, he trashes Johnson's dental office.[2]

Torn from the love of his family, Charlie becomes depressed and shuts out all the pain with drumming, collecting old LP's and playing the Sony video game Shadow of the Colossus.[3]

Johnson has been trying - inappropriately - to get informal psychological help from Angela Oakhurst (Liv Tyler) by repeatedly following her outside the skyscraper where they both work. Oakhurst is a young female therapist in his office building, and easily recognizes that Johnson's "friend's" situation is really his own. After fruitless attempts to help Charlie himself or set him up with a middle-aged (male) therapist, Alan gets her to take Charlie on when Charlie agrees that he needs help. Their sessions are short, and Charlie ends them the moment she asks any questions about the "thoughts" he's been avoiding. At the end of the third session, Oakhurst warns him that he eventually has to tell his story to somebody if he wants to heal his wounds.

Eventually Charlie finally opens up to Johnson (overheard by Dr. Oakhurst) and shares about his family. Memories of his family rush back into his mind and the sensation becomes too much for him to handle. He gets intoxicated and unearths a gun from a pile of boxes but has no bullets. He goes outside, sees two NYPD officers taking their break in a coffee shop, and points his empty gun at a taxi driver. He knows that the action will draw the attention of the policemen, and he seems to want to be killed (suicide by cop). The two officers confront him, and one pulls his sidearm, prepared to shoot him while calling out to his partner, who ran off. The cop's partner blindsides Charlie, tackling and disarming him, and the two cops slam him against a wall and arrest him. The city decides not to press charges against a "9/11 widower beat up by two cops" but insists on a 3-day psychological evaluation. Charlie is released, thanks to Alan and Angela, but must attend a hearing to determine whether or not he will be institutionalized.

Johnson, Donna, Adell (Charlie's landlord), Oakhurst, and Sugarman all attend the hearing, where the young prosecutor (B. J. Novak) uses pictures of Charlie's family to trigger outbursts from him. He tries to tune the memories out by shouting out the tune of "Love Reign O'er Me" out loud. The judge (Donald Sutherland) recognizes what the prosecutor is doing and begins to believe that the case is largely based on a family dilemma between Charlie and his in-laws (whom Charlie has been avoiding since 9/11), the closest thing to family he has now. The judge gives the power to his in-laws to decide if he should be institutionalized, and warns them of the seriousness of the power he has placed in their hands.
After overhearing Donna saying that he just has a broken heart and that the court doesn't understand that, Charlie hesitantly but forthrightly speaks to his in-laws about "seeing" his wife, kids and even the dog in strangers he encounters - which for him are even more vivid reminders than the photos his father-in-law carries in his wallet.

Finally, Johnson conspires with Fineman to help him move out over the weekend (before the final hearing, which never transpires on screen). Johnson meets the in-laws at the empty apartment, which is spotless and has a beautifully remodeled kitchen, and asks them to let Fineman go. They agree. Then Johnson sets up Charlie with Donna. Johnson calls his wife and discovers that he has hope that he can once again enjoy the company of his family. He then hops on Charlie's scooter, and heads home.

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