Anger Management
Another in the tradition of Hollywood's formulaic odd couple movies
Anger Management is another in the tradition of Hollywood's formulaic odd couple movies. Only here, Nicholson and Sandler don't really share much of a chemistry a la Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. Result: the viewer's left more flustered and irritated than entertained.
The plot itself offers little that can be remotely called unexpected and innovative. The funny moments are too few and far between and the funny lines (quite a few about the most crucial part of the male anatomy) could, perhaps, only impress an adolescent: "Temper is the one thing you can't get rid of by losing it." Mild-mannered Dave Buznik (Sandler) is a goofy guy who "doesn't like it when people watch him kiss". He unwittingly gets into a fracas on an airplane and is ordered by the court to attend anger management sessions run by the eccentric Dr Buddy Rydell (Nicholson) who believes that even the hits of The Carpenters are songs of madness and obsession. His classes are full of anger-addicted weirdos and his therapy is more caustic than calming, involving things as stupid and moronic as singing in the middle of rush-hour traffic. Rydell even gets to move in with Sandler, ostensibly to keep him in control, but ends up turning his life upside down, even usurping his beautiful girlfriend Linda (Tomei). Even an actor of Jack Nicholson's stature can do little to rescue Anger Management. In fact, with his cunning, catty grin and arched eyebrows he just plays himself, nothing more. Tomei gets utterly wasted and Sandler proves yet again that there's no grain of a thespian in him. Even the "surprise" cameos by an underdressed Heather Graham, the in-a-drag Woody Harrelson and the awkward John McEnroe fail to add any zing to the mess and chaos.
The worst scene, perhaps, is when Buznik confronts his childhood bully who has turned a Buddhist. The joke about Buddha's weight and the slapstick that plays out in the monastery is in plain bad taste. It only gets capped by a sentimental, syrupy finale in a baseball tournament with a packed stadium cheering Buznik to give a "five-second Frencher (kiss)" to his girlfriend. Anger Management is the kind of film that you could safely catch much later on television. If you have nothing better to watch.
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Courtesy: Film Information
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