Friday, April 11, 2003 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

MOVIE REVIEW: Walk the Line

'Anger Management' tiptoes around outrageous possibilities

Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson), left, puts "Anger Management" patient Dave Buznik (Adam Sandler) in his place during intensive one-on-one therapy. Linda (Marisa Tomei) pleads with boyfriend Dave (Adam Sandler) to reveal more of his emotions in "Anger Management."

Jack's back. And Adam Sandler's got him.

That's pretty much all you need to know about "Anger Management," in which Jack -- Jack Nicholson, of course, although the entire planet's on a first-name basis with him by now -- reverts to form.

If you missed that old Jack magic while Nicholson demonstrated his considerable acting prowess (in the Oscar-nominated "About Schmidt" and the underseen "The Pledge"), "Anger Management" finds him returning to scenery-chomping and showboating as a raging anger management expert.

"Anger Management" also finds Sandler flashing back, playing a kinder, gentler version of the passive-aggressive schlub he portrayed in last year's "Punch-Drunk Love."

Unlike that seriously offbeat romance, "Anger Management" stays determinedly on the beaten path, maintaining its Hollywood trajectory.

As a result, it's neither as hilarious nor as outrageous as it should be, settling for comfortable contrivance instead of consistent craziness.

These days, however, consistent craziness is probably too much to expect from reel life. (Real life, inevitably, is another matter.)

Yet "Anger Management" delivers enough sporadic laughs in the right places to keep everyone happy, if not exactly doubled over with laughter.

After all, life is no laughing matter for Dave Buznik (Sandler), a mild-mannered New Yorker with an OK job, an OK apartment and a more-than-OK girlfriend (Marisa Tomei) who's perpetually frustrated by his inability to express himself, romantically or otherwise.

Dave's seemingly placid existence, however, undergoes a sudden and shocking change when, during a business flight, he makes a meek request of a stewardess -- oops, flight attendant -- and the situation gets seriously out of control.

Unfortunately for Dave, he's the one everybody thinks is out of control.

So out of control that he's ordered to court, where a stern judge (Tony-winner Lynne Thigpen, who died last month at 54) orders him into anger management therapy with the renowned Dr. Buddy Rydell (Nicholson).

Dave's initial treatment finds him joining Dr. Rydell's therapy group, populated by the likes of Lou ("Punch-Drunk" alum Luis Guzman), who's only slightly more flamboyant than his attention-getting attire, and Chuck (the fearlessly out-there John Turturro), whose combat memories -- of the Grenada invasion -- trigger high-decibel screaming fits.

But they're nothing to Dr. Rydell's high-decibel screaming fits -- as Dave discovers when, after another angry relapse, he's sentenced to intensive one-on-one therapy to avoid a stint in the slammer.

Anyone who's seen the "Anger Management" trailers knows what's coming next: Dr. Rydell ranting and raving and generally transforming Dave's life into a living hell as he attempts to detonate the time-bomb ticking beneath his patient's deceptively still surface.

Some of these techniques prove undeniably amusing, as when Dr. Rydell interrupts a feeling-groovy car trip -- in the middle of New York's 59th Street Bridge -- to lead Dave in an impromptu rendition of "I Feel Pretty" from "West Side Story." (Considering what Robert De Niro did to "West Side Story" vocal selections in "Analyze That," I suppose we should brace ourselves for Vin Diesel warbling "Luck Be a Lady" in a "Guys and Dolls" remake.)

And sometimes Dr. Rydell's techniques prove arbitrary and/or annoying.

That's because screenwriter David Dorfman and director Peter Segal ("Nutty Professor II: The Klumps") keep trying to have it both ways.

In his feature debut, screenwriter Dorfman demonstrates a welcome absurdist flair.

But every time "Anger Management" looks like it's about to embrace its inner outrageousness, Dorfman and Segal demonstrate dismaying approach-avoidance tendencies, tiptoeing around the movie's comic possibilities rather than diving into the deep end.

Segal's slapdash, push-pull pacing also undermines the movie's madcap potential, while numerous spot-the-star cameos (Heather Graham as an alluring lust object, the ubiquitous John C. Reilly as Dave's schoolyard tormentor, Sandler's fellow "Saturday Night Live" alumnus Kevin Nealon as Dave's hapless lawyer) often disrupt the comedic momentum.

Then again, that's exactly what happens with "Anger Management's" star duo.

The top-billed Sandler once again trots out his peculiar blend of implosive resignation, vacillating between mild-mannered passivity and bad-boy aggression without ever really integrating the two.

And while it's always a treat to watch Nicholson indulge his playful, center-of-the-universe side, "Anger Management" gives him too many chances to go into Jack-attack mode, as when Dr. Rydell goes medieval on a parked car -- with a golf club. You can't see him winking at the camera, but he doesn't need to. Not when those of us in the audience can supply the wink for him.

Like such comedic predecessors as "Analyze This" and "Meet the Parents," this "Meet-the-Anger- Management-Therapist- Who's-Angrier-Than-His- Patient" comedy represents a concept that's better than its execution.

In this case, the premise is the punch line. And, as everybody knows, any punch line will lose its punch if you hear it too many times.