‘Upside’ has a downside

Sometimes a film’s conceit is stronger than its actual execution.

That’s definitely the case with writer/director Mike Binder’s “The

Upside of Anger.”

Terry Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen) is left to pick up the pieces of her

shattered family when her husband takes off to Sweden with his young

secretary. She deals with this bombshell with a sarcastic, stinging

wit and an unapologetic penchant for drinking herself into a numbing

haze.

Her four daughters have enough survival instinct to distance

themselves from Mom’s misery. Hadley (Alicia Witt) keeps her college

life private. Andy (Erika Christensen) is fiercely independent.

Emily (Keri Russell) is a ballet dancer, stung by her mom’s

judgmental opinion that she’s wasting her time on a pipedream. Popeye

(Evan Rachel Wood) is hesitantly testing her sexuality with a

recalcitrant boy from school.

However, the central relationship in this film is that between

Terry and her neighbor, Denny Davies (Kevin Costner), a fellow

drinker who lives off his waning fame as a pitcher for the Detroit

Tigers.

Costner and Allen are superb together. They feel like real people

whose personal disappointments often inhibit them from forging a new

life together. The ups and downs of their relationship are achingly

close to the bone. No one gets swept off his or her feet with love

here -- it’s hard won.

“The Upside of Anger” works from scene to scene, but the movie,

when looked at as a whole, has a flimsy, bloated structure. Its

biggest problem is an inability to juggle contrasting tones. At

times, it’s funny in a touching way that mines its humor from such a

deep well of pain. At other times, it ventures into over-the-top

comedy that earns a laugh but ultimately undermines the dramatic

momentum.

* ALLEN MACDONALD works in the television industry and resides in

Toluca Lake.