Drink does not solve anything! (The Upside Of Anger (DVD))

Member Name: sewbizzie

Product:	The Upside Of Anger (DVD)
Date:	14/10/09 (97 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: funny, great story, excellent acting, romantic at times!

Disadvantages: None from me

Terri is a married woman and the mother of 4 headstrong girls. She has a good life right up to the point where her husband disappears. Terri works out that he has run off with his Swedish secretary and starts to deal with it with the help of drink! She gets a visit from neighbour Denny, a ex-baseball player, who in a way is pleased that husband has left as he has always liked her.

Denny lives a different life to Terri and constantly drinks and smokes weed, the pair start to spend their days drinking much to the annoyance of Terri's girls. The girls do not like how bitter and twister their mother has become and try to talk to her about their Dad but she just slags him off. Terri and her girls are not getting on and their relationships are being pushed to the limit with the arrival of Denny.

Denny is now becoming a permanent fixture in the household but how far will their relationship go and can Terri ever have a good relationship with her girls and give up the drink?

I was not aware of this film until I saw it on a recent trip to Tesco but as it starred Kevin Costner who I rather like I thought I would give t a go. I found the storyline to be very good and a first I thought I had worked out the ending but a good twist came and this threw my theory out of the water. Found the character of Terri who was played by Joan Allen to be very good. I loved how she turned bitter and angry with the disappearance of her husband and thought she portrayed a hurt woman very well. She did at times have me feeling sorry for her but then a few minutes later she would have me laughing at some silly thing she did. She had a great chemistry with Denny, played by Kevin Costner and they worked well with each other.

Kevin played a great part and I loved watching how he grew throughout the film and by the end he was a completely different person to when the film started. I did enjoy he more at the beginning of the film when he was more of a lay about and had no cares in the world. He did bring a lot of humour to the film and I enjoyed his character very much.

The role of the daughters were very good and I loved the relationships which they all had with their mothers. I liked how we did get to see what was happening in their lives and not just their mothers as this gave some depth to the story. The relationships and rows did bring a lot of humour to the film and I liked how their mother could not say the right things even when she was trying so hard, this at times did remind me of being a teenager with my Mom. The supporting actors were also very good in the film.

The film is set in the present day so not much time or effort was needed with the costumes or sets but what we did see was very good and all looked very authentic and real. There were no real special effects to speak of in the film. The music used was all very good and varied. I found it was all very appropriate for the places which I was used and did in fact help with the emotions of the scenes in which it was used.

As I said there is a lot of humour in the film and it comes in different forms from one of the characters saying something funny to a small things like tripping over, this did help with the storyline and although it is not overpowering and does not take away from the serious storyline it is all very good and perfectly fitted into the film.

The running time of the film is 1 hour and 52 minutes and I found this to be a great length with the story moving at a good pace from start to finish. The certificate is a 15 as it does contain one use of swear words and some moderate sex references. I do feel that this is slightly high and maybe children of around the 13 years age would enjoy this. There are no bonus features on the DVD which I have.

Managed to pick this up for just £3 in Tesco which I felt was a bargain. I am going to recommend this film as it stars to great actors and it has a great balance of humour and seriousness.

Summary: Bitter Terri tres to get on with life with the help of drink and neighbour Denny!