"The Upside of Anger" is all about a laid back retired baseball hero (Cosner) who becomes involved with a neighbor woman (Allen) who has a perpetual bad attitude because her husband has run off to Sweden with his secretary. The film is sweetened by the woman's four beautiful but disparate daughters who thicken the plot with their own growing pains and family semifunctionality. Though it's been a long road from Mike Binder's debut in the raunchy romp "Hollywood Knights" (one of my guilty pleasures which helped launch the careers of Michelle Pffiefer, Tony Danza, Roberft Whurl, Fran Drescher and others), he score's a hit as director, writer, and character actor with this enjoyable and insightful cross-genre (comedy/drama/romance) tale of a mature couple sorting through their midlife crises together. Not a blockbuster but a very pleasant little film with a twist at the end worthy of a DVD rental. (B)
Review of The Upside of Anger
