March 22, 2007 - Mike Binder wrote, directed and co-stars in Columbia's Reign Over Me, the latest drama to explore 9/11. Binder's dramedy is about the emotional aftermath of that dark day and the effect it still has on a man who lost his family on one of the doomed airlines. The story may be fictionalized, but there are surely people out there whose experiences and pain mirror those of the film's protagonist, Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler, in his most dramatic role).

Charlie was a successful New York dentist when his beloved wife and daughters were killed. Five years later, he is a shell of who he once was and behaves almost as if they never existed. He lashes out in rage at any mention of them or attempt to broach the subject. Living off the settlement he received for his family's deaths, Charlie escapes into videogames as well as the music of his youth. He blocks out the world with his noise-cancelling headphones and rides alone through Manhattan on his motorized scooter.

The first step toward chipping Charlie's carefully constructed armor is when he is reunited with Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle), his roommate from dental school. Alan has a successful practice, a nice home and a great family, but he is bored and yearning for some measure of control over his life, which he feels has been ceded to his wife Janeane (Jada Pinkett Smith).

Alan dances around his own need for help, seeking advice for a "friend" whenever he encounters Angela Oakhurst (Liv Tyler), a psychiatrist who works in the same medical building he does. Alan initially spends time with Charlie simply to escape from the dullness of his home life. Charlie is like the troubled kid who hides in his treehouse fort and Alan is his neighborhood pal who comes over to play. But Alan soon realizes that he must try to help Charlie overcome his pain, which in its own way will also get Alan the help he needs. Charlie, however, is fiercely resistant to getting help. He has frozen out his parents-in-law (Robert Klein and Melinda Dillon), who eventually try to get Charlie committed to a mental health hospital after he gets into trouble. Whether Charlie is capable of and willing to move on with his life is the big question.

Reign Over Me is a hit-and-miss film, but it is Sandler's portrayal of the traumatized Charlie that nevertheless makes it a must-see. He gives a complex, nuanced performance, capturing the character's tortured, fragile nature. Sandler is often called upon to veer from vulnerability to volatility within the same scene, and he does it without ever becoming unintentionally funny. (Charlie does have his funny moments, but it's just part of his overall defense mechanism.) Sandler has made a fortune in comedy playing vulnerable man-children who often explode into violently hilarious rages, but here he takes that same character type and turns it into someone painfully authentic. This could well be the performance Sandler will be remembered for.

Cheadle, one of the best actors working today, has the lead weight to carry here. Unlike Charlie, whose problem is clearly defined, Alan's is more elusive and commonplace. He has simply lost interest in the day-to-day business of life, but -- through his relationship with Charlie -- he musters the nerve to tell off those who need to be told off and to reconnect with his wife. Still, compared to Charlie, Alan really has nothing to complain about. The story begins as Alan's, but the focus switches halfway through to Charlie. It seems as if Charlie is merely there to help change Alan's life, but once we fully understand why Charlie is the way he is, the story becomes about Charlie with Alan there to help him. Obviously, Charlie is the more interesting character, but the shift in narrative focus is noteworthy and jarring.

The rest of the cast are decent, but not necessarily remarkable. Pinkett Smith is simply there, stuck with the underdeveloped "suffering wife" role. Tyler is cast against type as a shrink, the kind of part that Diane Wiest might normally play. Donald Sutherland draws on his ample reserve of screen authority and righteous indignation to play the judge who weighs Charlie's situation, while Saffron Burrows has a bizarre supporting role as a sexually troublesome patient of Alan's.

The problems with Reign Over Me are all story-related, with Alan and his family ultimately proving too uninteresting to fully hold our attention during the spells when Charlie is offscreen. Thankfully, the fine performances by Sandler and Cheadle give the film enough of what it needs in order to recommend it.