The Upside Of Anger - Preview
Preview by Jack Foley
IT’S seems to have taken an age to get here but Kevin Costner’s The Upside of Anger is finally getting a UK release on December 15.
The film was a Sundance Film Festival hit a couple of years ago and earned Costner some of the best reviews of his more recent career. It enables the actor to further indulge one of his long-time on-screen passions – baseball (the other being westerns, for it seems that both genres have served the actor well).
Baseball, for instance, has helped to contribute to past hits such as Field of Dreams, Bull Durham and, to a lesser degree, Sam Raimi’s For Love Of The Game, while who can forget Westerns such as Dances With Wolves, Wyatt Earp and Open Range.
The Upside of Anger finds Costner once more playing a once-great baseball star (turned disc-jockey) who steps in to become a drinking buddy to a woman still coming to terms with being suddenly abandoned by her husband.
Directed by Mike Binder, who previously helmed TV’s The Mind of a Married Man, the film marks something of a supporting role for Costner, who plays largely second fiddle to Joan Allen.
Yet it could just mark a turning point in the star’s career, as he looks for less mainstream choices.
“When I think of the next five years, I think of individual choices. ... I’m looking to stay independent,” he was quoted as saying when he supported the film at its Sundance debut.
He also insists that the challenge will be to continue to search for different roles, rather than sticking to formula, pointing out that he had repeatedly turned down offers for projects such as The Bodyguard 2.
His character in Upside of Anger might have his roots in baseball but, according to Costner, would rather talk cooking than sports, and is happy to drink, smoke pot and court women his own age.
As such, it was acclaimed by many who saw it at Sundance. The festival website even observed: “Galvanized by a great and witty script, and powered by truly remarkable performances by Joan Allen and Kevin Costner, The Upside of Anger is a welcome and inspired revision of the classic genre.
“Writer/director Mike Binder deserves all the kudos he will likely receive for this superbly rendered comedic drama, which is at once traditional and iconoclastic and as absorbing and entertaining as it is appealingly human.”
We’re looking forward to finally catching up with it when it opens in December.