Mike Binder wrote and directed the film Reign Over Me. He is well known for his award-winning movie The Contender. He also directed The Sex Monster. Reign Over Me is his latest movie. It opens widely March 23. It boasts a fine cast that includes Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and Liv Tyler.

Don Cheadle plays the role of Alan Johnson, a successful dentist in New York City. He gets stuck in traffic en route to picking up his daughter when he spots Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler) on the streets of New York riding a two-wheel scooter. He is unsuccessful at getting his attention. A couple of days later he sees him again, and this time he gets his attention. After Alan has to make Charlie remember he was his old college roommate, the story continues with their efforts at cautiously rekindling this friendship.

Charlie at first appears down on his luck. He has a street-hardened and confused look on his face. Appearances are deceiving, though, as he is not only a dentist, he is anything but hard up. Charlie lost his entire family to 9/11: three daughters, a wife, and the family dog. He was also well compensated for their wrongful deaths.

Alan Johnson quickly discovers there is a price to pay for keeping Charlie a friend. Charlie has a lot of problems. Ironically, Johnson's bordering obsession with Charlie, and his post-traumatic grief, makes him eventually ignore his own lovely family. While Charlie is grieving for his family, whom we only learn about in flashbacks, Alan is slowly losing his own familial connections. He no longer connects with his wife, Janeane (Jada Pinkett-Smith). We catch him rolling his eyes at her suggestions of fun. His idea of fun, and asserting his freedom, become staying out all night playing video games with Charlie. At first he asks permission, but later he ignores her dozens of messages. 

His father does die, but do we care? Not exactly. Thus the interpersonal relationships between the actors simply fall flat. For me this movie was like watching someone shovel cold snow instead of walking through an emotion-evoking rain. Don't get me wrong; I had no real complaint about the acting. I think it was the story as a 9/11 tragedy that did not deliver. It was no Crash.

America has already seen quite a few well-done 9/11 movies. They involved the pain and grief of men and women who survived and did not survive that attack. I felt their pain and believed their grief. Charlie is also supposed to be so wracked with grief that he loses touch with reality. He is completely knocked off balance after four 9/11 deaths. I think his escapades around town on a two-wheeled scooter act as metaphor for the balance he has lost in his life.

The set looks great, but the movie did not engage me emotionally. A film should have a collective buildup of concern for the characters. This film goes for one last hurrah instead. It tries one last stunt to pull on the heartstrings of the audience: a trial. After Charlie's bungled attempt at police suicide, there is a trail. It involves bringing up the family that Charlie just can't stand to think about, hear about, or look at. This scene seems to engage the audience because it strips away Charlie's last defense: avoidance of his loss. However the movie is nearly over. The last card has been played and Charlie wins.