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Anger Management
by Ed Johnson-Ott Apr 9, 2003

(PG-13) 3 stars

Lower your expectations. Anger Management is funny, but not nearly as funny as a movie co-starring Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson should be. Still, it pays off enough that I"m looking forward to seeing it again. Before entering a theater to review a film, I try to clear my head of preconceptions. This time I forgot. Instead, I sat back and waited for the hilarity to begin. After all, we were dealing with a historic teaming here: Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson. Never mind how such an unlikely pairing occurred, surely the results would be riotous. Indeed, the film is riotous. At times riotous as in hilarious, at other times riotous as in very busy and unfocused. Anger Management is all over the place, shifting from one path to another like a puppy set loose in a new home. Colorful characters are introduced - some revisited, others abandoned too soon. Major comic set pieces roll out, some prompting fitful laughs, others building to a peak without sufficient payoff. The set-up is certainly promising. Dave Buznik (Sandler), a mild-mannered soul, has an encounter with a wildly over-sensitive flight attendant that lands him in front of Judge Daniels (played by the wonderful Lynne Thigpen in the last big screen appearance before her death), falsely accused of air-rage. She orders him to attend anger management classes run by Dr. Buddy Rydell (Nicholson), a therapist known for being unconventional and abrasive, but also remarkably effective. When another incident puts Dave in front of Judge Daniels again, she issues an edict: Dave will continue seeing Dr. Rydell and will follow his instructions to a T. Should he fail to do so, he will spend a year in jail. The gentle sad sack is left at the mercy of Buddy the wild-ass doctor, who decides that the best way to serve his patient is to move in with him. With his job at risk, his relationship with his girlfriend Linda (Marisa Tomei) shaky and a crazy doctor barking orders, Dave finds himself beginning to get a little angry. For most of the film, Sandler plays straight man to Nicholson. Being an effective straight man is a difficult task, and Sandler handles it beautifully. He is adept at remaining sweet while being provoked and does an absolutely terrific slow burn. When he finally explodes, his fits of rage are a hoot, even if we"ve seen similar outbursts in his other comedies. Remember when Sandler first appeared on Saturday Night Live, a sheepish kid doing silly songs? Who would have dreamed that he would become one of the most successful comedians in history, building an empire on sloppy frat-boy humor and angry outbursts? While I enjoyed some of his stuff on SNL, I loathed his early movies. But damned if he didn"t win me over with The Wedding Singer, Big Daddy and Punch-Drunk Love, his controversial (controversial as in most critics loved it and most filmgoers absolutely hated it) collaboration with Boogie Nights director Paul Thomas Anderson. As for the remarkable Mr. Nicholson, he is in full Mad Jack mode here, upping the outrage factor to an 11 early on and keeping it there for most of the film. Very few actors could get away with this kind of performance, but that"s what makes him Jack Nicholson. One of his best scenes comes late in the movie, when he eggs on Dave by smiling devilishly and nodding, with his eyebrows arched to an impossible level. Nicholson overacts better than anybody. Even when the gags fizzled, I was content just watching these two guys work. Performances by the supporting cast are all over the board. Tomei, Thigpen, hell, most of the women are given little to do, although Heather Graham has a couple of good moments in a cameo appearance. Luis Guzman is slightly annoying as an effeminate group therapy member (his outfits are hilarious, though), while John Turturro is a scream as one of his buddies. In cameo appearances, John C. Reilly hits the bull"s-eye as a monk with issues and Woody Harrelson is flat-out scary as the ugliest drag queen in history. Repeated images of an Army recruitment sign and statements like "our country is going through a difficult time" (intended as a nod to the Sept. 11 atrocities, I think) have a slightly sobering effect playing against the current war. Anger Management is what happens when gifted comic performers play out a so-so script (by David Dorfman) under the auspices of a hack director (Peter Segal - Nutty Professor 2). Lower your expectations and you"ll likely have some fun.

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