Reign Over Me
"Let in the unexpected."
A man who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City runs into his old college roommate. Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief.
Top Cast
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Adam Sandler
Charlie Fineman
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Don Cheadle
Alan Johnson
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Jada Pinkett Smith
Janeane Johnson
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Liv Tyler
Angela Oakhurst
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Saffron Burrows
Donna Remar
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Donald Sutherland
Richter Raines
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Robert Klein
Jonathan Timpleman
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Melinda Dillon
Ginger Timpleman
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Mike Binder
Bryan Sugarman
Overview
A man who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City runs into his old college roommate. Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief.
Rating
7.2
/ 10
1,206 Reviews 2 Popular
1 Reviews
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CinemaSerf6 Dec 28, 2025Dentist “Alan” (Don Cheadle) has built up a decent practice, is happily married with two children and he even has the Volvo. Outwardly content, he is finding things are starting to overwhelm him a bit - especially when patient “Angela” (Liv Tyler) asks for some extra veneer on her veneer! Travelling home one afternoon he espies the headphone-wearing “Charlie” (Adam Sandler) who he recalls he shared a flat with years ago at college. What he doesn’t know is that 9/11 impacted very profoundly on his friend and with little to live for, “Charlie” is stuck in a maelstrom of despair that although on an entirely different scale from “Alan”, he needs to talk about too. Suffice to say that this is a bit like getting blood from a stone. “Charlie” has given up on life and on himself, but can his friend help him navigate his grief and his loneliness whilst dealing with a few demons of his own? The last half hour of this do redeem it to an extent, especially when we are left with just Cheadle and Sandler to demonstrate what has become an intensely personal relationship. Sadly, though, I didn’t find enough of that intensity and there were too many distractions to the story to sustain the thrust for me. Perhaps the object was to compare the lesser “inconveniences” of “Alan” with the tragic ones of “Charlie”, but that fell a bit short for me as the personality of “Charlie” wasn't explored anything like deep enough and the attempts at humour fell rather flat. It’s a tough subject to address, dealing with issues of grief and of being a victim and at times it does it potently, just not with enough sustained conviction. Perhaps it’s Sandler setting out to prove he has more than one string to his bow, but I was often unconvinced.
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