Allen, Costner elevate 'Anger'

If it weren't for an uneven plot, "The Upside of Anger" would be an excellent film. Still, it remains a good movie with above average acting, especially by co-stars Kevin Costner and Joan Allen. They are believable together as drinking buddies-turned-lovers -- two extremes of personality who meet to offer each other a taste of something different.\nAllen is Terry Wolfmeyer, a housewife whose first resort after her husband's disappearance is Grey Goose vodka. Assuming he has run off to Sweden with his secretary, she reacts by drinking enough vodka to fill a small swimming pool. She becomes an elegant wreck, only gradually climbing back up by alternately leaning on and pushing away ex-baseball star Denny Davies (Costner). Costner is lovable as a radio personality who refuses to talk about baseball even though his fame is what draws people to his show. His performance as an easygoing has-been with a heart of gold seems effortless.\nThe anger of the title provides the center of this film, drawing it together and generating the drama. Although the anger is mostly Terry's, some of it burns in the souls of Terry's four daughters played by Alicia Witt, Keri Russell, Erika Christensen and Evan Rachel Wood. As a study of anger, the film falters. All four daughters are beautiful and their performances quite good, but the emotional fare for them is similar to that of "7th Heaven" -- shallow and easily resolved. The conclusion the film reaches makes little sense.\nMuch better is Terry herself, whose anger finds a wobbly platform upon which to fester. The audience, however, is left to guess how she is getting by without her husband, who was evidently the breadwinner and is not supporting her in any way. One wonders what sort of relationship Terry may have had with her husband; his lack of communication goes unquestioned and everyone proceeds to profess their hatred of him almost as soon as he's gone. The film, however, after opening with a brief prologue, a funeral scene narrated by Terry's youngest daughter (Wood), alights at the dinner table three years earlier where Terry breaks the news to her daughters that their father is gone.\nUltimately, "The Upside of Anger" is far from perfect. It does offer a deeper-than-usual look at breakdown and healing. As Denny says, "It heals, but it heals funny; you walk with a limp." Terry's struggle is at times deeply moving, and this element, along with the scenes between Denny and her, make the film worth seeing.