Reign Over Me
age 16+
Grief-stricken Adam Sandler deals with 9/11.
- Rated: R
- Genre: Drama
- Release Year: 2007
- Running Time: 128 minutes
What parents need to know
Violence
Sex
Language
Consumerism
Drinking, drugs, & smoking
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that this isn't an Adam Sandler comedy. Rather, it's a drama about a man's ongoing response to losing his family on 9/11. For much of the film, Sandler's character is ragged-looking, distraught, aggressive, and foul-mouthed -- though he can also be charming in a childish way. His visits to a therapist are mostly sad, as is his eventual lengthy description of his loss. There's lots of swearing and derogatory slang, as well as discussion of suicide (one nearly successful attempt is shown), insanity, institutionalization, and oral sex. Some yelling, pushing, and hitting takes place during a fight, and minor drinking in bar leads to an argument.
User reviews
Parents say
Kids say
What's the story?
When Alan (Don Cheadle) discovers Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler) shuffling on a New York sidewalk, it's obvious that his onetime college roommate needs help. But even though Charlie is suffering dislocation and depression after losing his wife and daughters in a plane on 9/11, he's not the only character in REIGN OVER ME who could use a sense of purpose and connection.
Is it any good?
QUALITY
A disjointed meditation on loss, Mike Binder's film lines up a whole series of victims. As hard as Reign Over Me works to complicate Charlie's grief and rage (he's alternately twitchy and aggressive, frightening and pathetic), it offers a troubling, reductive contrast in one of Alan's patients, Donna (Saffron Burrows). Her "female" response to her own traumatic loss isn't edifying or sympathetic. Instead, Donna is driven into hypersexual stalker-spasms (she repeatedly offers Alan oral sex in his office). Her aggressiveness scares Alan and intrigues Charlie, who is mostly lost in an adolescent fixation on her breasts -- at least until she becomes his means to redemption.
Families can talk about...
Families can talk about the lingering effects of 9/11 on our culture. How have the media treated the event? How do tragic stories and images help us work through emotional wounds? How does Donna's trauma affect her differently than Charlie's affects him? Why do you think Charlie is so fond of popular culture that reminds him of his youth (comics, '80s bands, video games, etc.)? How does the media help define an era?
Movie details
| Theatrical release date: | March 22, 2007 |
| DVD/Streaming release date: | October 9, 2007 |
| Cast: | Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett Smith |
| Director: | Mike Binder |
| Studio: | Sony Pictures |
| Genre: | Drama |
| Run time: | 128 minutes |
| MPAA rating: | R |
| MPAA explanation: | language and some sexual references. |
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are conducted by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
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great for discussion when watched with an adult
good example of Christlike love
What other families should know
Too much sex
Too much swearing
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Great movie, even though there is the swearing you don't tend to notice it as much when your paying attention to the grieving messed up guy. Excellent show, I have recommended it to others. Not a comedy... Adam Sandler does the swearing in the movie, but that should be a given.
What other families should know
Too much swearing
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