There's a lot going on, a lot of interlocking pieces shifting and morphing into each other in the hopes of demonstrating something fantastic and new. Maybe that's the point, though. A story about an off-kilter Sept.
11 widower and his encounters with an old college roommate isn't supposed to be a basket of puppies. And yet, even from a post-9/11 perspective, Mike Binder's latest work struggles to establish a colorful depiction of grief and loss in an age in which families are still coping with memories they'd rather forget. Don Cheadle plays Dr.
Alan Johnson, a successful yet cautious dentist who happens upon his old college roommate, Charlie Fineman (played by Adam Sandler), a stuttering, long-haired video game junkie who hardly resembles his past self, mentally shattered by the trauma of losing his wife and daughters in the Sept. 11 attacks. The first time we see Charlie, he's riding a scooter through New York City like a lost cat wandering the streets, dirtied from the elements and easily spooked by strangers.
His erratic, soft-spoken style of speech hints at a devastating past and an inability to comprehend the future, but the movie tells us early on the reason for Charlie's current status, so there's no dramatic surprise waiting in the wings. The film is about how we react to tragedy, not how it thrusts itself upon us. The two long-lost friends begin to rekindle their relationship, often involving trips to New York's ground-level record shops, all night video game binges and awkward social interactions.
Charlie is an off-balance individual. One minute he and Alan resemble a pair of raunchy college boys basking in an old friendship. But once Alan attempts to breach the topic of Charlie's past, Charlie turns into his own version of Mr.
Hyde, screaming incoherently and violently destroying property.
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