The Upside of Anger doesn’t look like much from the outset, and rightfully so as even production behind it wasn’t too impressed with it. With no major studio company wanting to make it, the movie seemed like it had very little chance of ever standing out. Even when the movie came out in 2005, a lower-budgeted under the radar American rom-com starring Joan Allen and Kevin Costner was not going to sway people to see it, only earning a decent critical score, very fitting when the score is for a perfectly passable movie. Just believing that her husband has left her, sharp-witted suburban wife Terry (played by Joan Allen) is heavily mentally beaten and soon becomes more of an insult spewing mad woman, especially at her four daughter (played by Erika Christensen, Keri Russell, Alicia Witt and Even Rachel Wood). Finding solace in her drunkard neighbour, Denny (played by Kevin Costner), she soon finds the rest of her world not working out as it should be as the daughters start to stretch out into their own lives, including having a baby before getting married, dating an older sleazy man whose who works with her, and even not going to the college she wants them to go too. Close to a breaking point and desperately wanting sex with Costner, Terry has to balance the fragility of her mind with the struggles of being a single parent with needs. Though the concept sounds both shallow, simplistic and ridiculous, this movies is strangely manageable and not the typical anger-inducing work you would expect from a rom-com. With enough decent performances and relatable drama that it can hold an audience member, and miniscule enough problems that it doesn’t fall completely flat.

This movie doesn’t take the traditional romantic comedy formula and instead opts for something a bit more mellow and down-to-earth. One of the biggest problems with any romantic comedy is how overly obvious its being with itself that its over-the-top and proud of it, which can work decently for comedy but horrendously for drama. While it isn’t a stranger to some quirky moments and over-the-top segments (including a strangely out of nowhere brutal death hallucination), the film instead keeps itself mostly focusing on relatable family dynamics and issues that a lot of people could understand; handling the lost of a parent, dealing with a difficult parent, the stress of dating, all of these things feel more toned down and realistic compared to most of the situations in a typical rom-com. That’s not to say this movie really tackles any of these issues in a smart thought-out way, but it does at least try to stabilise itself without going to over-the-edge of annoyance. The cliches for this movie aren’t as normal for this formula and even though they are still cliches, they are worked around in a manageable and inoffensive way. The film doesn’t really drag its feet and doesn’t get boring despite the almost two-hour running time, and for how easily this film could have been annoying and predictable, its less story structured method allows for things to not be that obvious and therefore not as stale.

The characters in the movie are mainly held together by the performances and not as much on the writing. While its evident that each person has something that makes them stand out, and even each of the daughters don’t feel like carbon copies of the other, the movie doesn’t take out any time to flesh them out enough that they can be unique characters. There’s still the traditional drunkard loser that will soon become a better person, the overly protective mother that means well but goes to far with how she shows her feelings, the independent daughters, the sleazy work partner, etc. Because of the lack of furthered characterisation, the actors really have to carry most of these roles if they aren’t just going to be forgotten about the next day, and thankfully everyone in this movie is doing a fairly decent job. Joan Allen and Kevin Costner and fairly good leads, they have average amounts of chemistry with each other, and all the daughters are acted pretty well, enough so that they stand apart from the other. The only actor that doesn’t really work in the film is the sleazy man that the daughters dating played by Mike Binder (who also happens to be the writer and director of the film). Whether it was just the fact that the character is this one note trope or that the writing wasn’t giving him any favours, but he is the only element of annoyance that really comes out of this movie.

The writing for the movie does a fairly decent job at the drama side of the film; nothing about it is too overblown or overly dramatic, its handled with enough quiet dignity that some of the moments actually work pretty well when they happen. Since the movie is so character-centred, when a bad thing happens to one of them, it will cause a form of reaction because there’s been a lot of time dedicated to watching them and see them interact. Because of this, the serious moments actually don’t seem phoney or incredibly condescending, they feel misguided and a bit quick, but still effective. However, this doesn’t work the same way for the humor aspect of the writing. Nothing about the movie is really that funny, instead the humor seems really wordy or circumstantial rather than clever and thought out. Its mostly just shouting things and not even very funny things. The score of the film, composed by Alexandre Desplat is very fluffy and feels very reminiscent of what a typical rom-com soundtrack would sound like, not very fitting of the tone or movie in general.

The Upside of Anger is a decent movie that could have easily been forgotten about with how many rom coms are placed in the same ballpark. This movie thankfully comes across more as a comedy drama than one of those films, opting out for more drama than fairy tale elements, and while it has a similar level of pleasantness that would expected out of a world without much consequences, the film honestly holds up a bit better than people would expect it too. With solid performances, a nice mellow tone and never feeling too boring or obnoxious, this film does find an upside to usually frown inducing genre.