The Upside of Anger

For centuries Anger has been included in the Seven Deadly Sins (Pride, Envy, Anger, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, Lust.) This list may not seem all that bad, after all they aren’t acts, they are attitudes. But that is what makes this list so “deadly� – they are attitudes that can control our lives and eat away at us. This corrosiveness is the center of The Upside of Anger.

The film begins as Terry has discovered that her husband has gone. It is obvious to her that he has run off to Sweden with his assistant at work. That begins the anger that builds throughout the film. Through an alcoholic haze she lashes out at her four daughters and anyone else who gets within range.

Her neighbor, Denny, a former baseball player now radio personality, comes within range, but seems somewhat exempt from the barrage of anger because he drinks with her and she sees him as inherently inferior. Soon he’s a regular part of the household, serving as a bit of surrogate father for the daughters.

Denny and Terry make an interesting pairing. The surface differences are obvious enough. She is an upper-middle class woman who epitomizes the bourgeoisie; he is a retired ballplayer trying to get by on his name. Her home is immaculate; his is a mess. She is well enough provided for to be able to withstand this life change without financial struggle; he scrapes by signing autographs and making appearances at shopping malls.

But below that level there are much more intriguing differences. Denny is open and non-judgmental; Terry, in her anger, judges everyone and everything. Denny knows no boundaries (or at least doesn’t observe them); Terry expects everything to be done properly (even when she fails to observe propriety).

The real difference though is how they relate to their pasts. Terry is mired in her life because the absence of her husband. That gives her a reason for her anger, which gives meaning to all she does. She cannot move forward in her life, because to do that she would have to let go of that past and the anger and meaning it provides. Denny on the other hand has discarded his past. He may make his money off selling bits of that past (his autograph), but he refuses to talk about baseball, even on his radio show that is supposed to be about baseball. That past to him is something that he can’t live in anymore. It was good for him, but to move on with his life, he’s had to leave it behind.

As the film plays out, there are many changes going on within the family. The youngest daughter is trying to learn about love, an older daughter may be learning a bit much about love. The daughters get opportunities that don’t fit with their mother’s plans for them – good opportunities, but not to her liking. The anger that is stored up in Terry keeps being directed toward her daughters, whether they deserve it or not. Yet as dysfunctional as all this is, the story is done with enough humor that we are eager to watch.

Eventually some things happen that calls her away from her anger and gives a new perspective on that anger. In that shift we really see just how much damage the anger has done, not just to those at whom it was directed, but to the one who is angry. As with so many things that we view as harmful acts, the agent is often just as much affected as the recipient.

Joan Allen gets to show many sides of this character and demonstrates again why she is held in such esteem as an actor. While the rest of the cast does good work, Allen is the real focus.

I do have one objection to raise about the film. Maybe it’s just one of my pet peeves, but I really hate when a filmmaker goes to all the work to create a film that makes a point, then doesn’t trust the audience enough to allow them to figure out the point. Instead, as in this film, there is a verbal explanation given just in case you didn’t know what the film was about. That’s the downside of this film.

The Upside of Anger serves as an opportunity to see not only the way anger manifests itself, but also the effect that anger can have on us all.