reign over me

Brooke and I had a date on Monday and we decided to go see the movie Reign Over Me with Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle. Brooke thought the story was good but didn't really enjoy the film. I loved it. In all fairness to Brooke's opinion it's not a great film. There are several scenes which are too long or uneccesary for plot development, a few of the scenarios just aren't believable (two in particular made me made groan inwardly because of how cliché they were), and I'm under the distinct impression that the quality of a film decreases with each line of dialogue that Liv Tyler has. However, while it was not a great film it was a good one and it touched me more deeply than I expected it would. Instead of giving you a drawn out review of the film I'll just list some of the reasons I appreciated it.

Here they are in no particular order:
1. Marriage and fidelity are held up as good things deserving of commitment and preservation. This was accomplished without being smarmy or moralistic.
2. The film portrayed a healthy friendship between two adult males. Due to the plot of the film the friendship was obviously not a normal one but in my opinion it's still one of the best depictions of male friendship I've ever seen in film.
3. 9/11 and the personal loss experienced by thousands of people that day was handled tastefully. You actually only hear the expression "9/11" one time in the entire film which was refreshing. The way this subject was dealt with made also me realize that I still have some unresolved emotions concerning the events of that day.
4. I actually appreciated how slow the film was. The film lingers and repeats scenes. This is an intentional feature that reinforces the idea that emotional healing takes time.
5. Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler deliver fantastic performances.
6. The film clearly demonstrates that "normal" people who seem to have everything together need help as well as the "weird" folks.
7. I really appreciate that a talented black actor was given a role that was truly human and not a stereotypical "black" role. Cheadle's character is well developed and worthy of his amazing acting skills. Cheadle's role is technically as the supporting actor but he definitely comes off as the lead.
8. I don't want to ruin anything but let's just say that the title of the film is very intentional and in my opinion is more true than was even intended by the film makers.
9. There are other things I could write but the last one I'll mention is that I think the character of Alex Johnson is a good picture of what I want to be as a pastor. While imperfect and flawed in his own ways he approaches other broken people with respect and kindness. He admits his mistakes and apologizes when he screws up. He enters into Charlie's world and lives life with him. He isn't condescending and he takes a genuine interest Charlie. These are things I would like people to say about me and I think they are things that should characterize those who are in pastoral ministry, unfortunately this often isn't the case.

So there you have it. Some of my thoughts on why Reign Over Me is worth your money.