‘It’s the Rage’ Misfires Its Anti-Gun Message

In 1974, the Emmy Award-winning writing-and-producing team of Richard Levinson and William Link made an unforgettable TV movie, “The Gun,” in which they traced the history of a single handgun as it passed from person to person. Swift, economical and devastating under John Badham’s terse direction, it was as entertaining as it was a powerful, implicit plea for gun-control legislation.

It’s impossible to watch “It’s the Rage” without recalling “The Gun” because the new film, which has already aired on Cinemax but opens in theaters today, is everything that the older film was not. Adapted by Keith Reddin from his play and directed by James D. Stern as if it was still a theater piece, it is implausible, contrived and tedious despite the best efforts of a prestigious ensemble cast.

The message it sends, intended or otherwise, is that guns should be kept out of the hands of the crazed and the unstable. Surely even the National Rifle Assn. would agree to that.

The story is set in motion when a jealous, nasty husband (Jeff Daniels) lies in wait to shoot to death his business partner, who is having an affair with Daniels’ wife (Joan Allen). Daniels’ attorney (Andre Braugher) gets him off, persuading a jury that Daniels mistook the man for an intruder, but Braugher himself makes the mistake of coming on to a clearly crazed young blond (Anna Paquin); Braugher has an unbalanced lover (David Schwimmer) who’s just bought some guns; and Paquin has an even crazier, ultra-possessive brother (Giovanni Ribisi).

What’s more, Allen, having left Daniels, accepts a job with an eccentric computer genius (Gary Sinise) who lives in a virtual reality universe and, suffering from information overload, has cut himself off from the world. Josh Brolin plays Allen’s predecessor in Sinise’s employ; he becomes a video store clerk unknowingly endangering his life when he develops a crush on Paquin. The only reasonably normal people on hand are Allen and Robert Forster as a veteran cop on the verge of retirement but certain that Daniels is a cold-blooded killer who got off scot-free.

“It’s the Rage” is too wordy and uninspired, too theatrical and directed with too heavy a hand to play as a pitch-dark comedy commenting on the absurdity of the easy accessibility of guns. Only Allen is able to suggest much dimension or credibility; Sinise’s bravura turn might have worked on a stage. But “It’s the Rage” misfires badly as both an entertainment and a message movie.

* MPAA rating: R, for violence and strong language. Times guidelines: In addition to considerable bloodshed and strong language there is some sexual dialogue.

‘It’s the Rage’

Joan Allen: Helen Harding

Gary Sinise: Mr. Morgan

Andre Braugher: Tim Sullivan

Jeff Daniels: Warren Harding

A Silver Nitrate release. Director James D. Stern. Producers Stern, Peter Gilbert, Ash R. Shah, Anne McCarthy, Mary Vernieu. Executive producers Will Tyrer, Chris Ball, Gary Levinsohn, Mark Vernieu. Screenplay by Keith Reddin; adapted from his play. Cinematographer Alex Nepomniaschy. Editor Tony Lombardo. Music Mark Mothersbaugh. Costumes Edi Giguere. Production designer Jerry Fleming. Art director Jim Donahue. Set decorator Rona De Angelo. Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes.

Exclusively at the Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 848-3500, and the NuWilshire Theatre, 1314 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 394-8099.