‘Anger Management’ Is Not Quite Worth Its Talented Leads

There’s a moment in Anger Management when Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler halt everything and join one another in a duet of “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story. It’s an inspired moment, full of outrageous glee and sure to induce guffaws from the audience. Unfortunately, it’s one of the few sequences in the film that really takes flight.

Anger Management is an amusing, often entertaining movie, but it’s also disappointingly light on truly funny material. It’s a shame the picture couldn’t make better use of the inspired teaming of Nicholson and Sandler, both of whom are in fine form, regardless of the meager pickings of the script. Perhaps someone in Hollywood will manage to dig up another, better project on which they can re-team down the road.

Now playing as the top film in the country (it took in over $42 million, a record for any film opening in April), Anger Management – directed by Peter Segal (Tommy Boy and Nutty Professor II) – follows meek management assistant Dave Buznik (Sandler), who has a bit of a run-in with a flight attendant over a pair of headsets. Before long, this misunderstanding leads to a confrontation with an on-flight security officer, and ultimately Buznik finds himself in court facing assault charges.

After unsuccessfully pleading his case, he is assigned to undergo anger counseling with Dr Buddy Rydell (Nicholson), an unorthodox therapist. Before Buznik can even begin to process all that’s happened, he finds Rydell unexpectedly moving in with him and impinging on his life, including his relationship with his girlfriend, Linda (Marisa Tomei).

Both Sandler and Nicholson are coming off unconventional outings their last time at the plate, so to speak. Nicholson is fresh off an Academy Award nomination for his startlingly subtle work in About Schmidt, and Sandler received the best critical notices of his career for his offbeat turn in Punch Drunk Love. This is significant because both these films appear to have reinvigorated the actors and they, in turn, approach this relatively lightweight fare with applaudable gusto. In fact, with Sandler essentially playing the straight man to Nicholson’s wild and crazy act as the unpredictable Dr Rydell, the two of them hit such a rhythm that they almost mask all the film’s shortcomings... but not quite.

While the casting of Sandler and Nicholson is pure genius, the makers of Anger Management tip their hand by filling an abundance of supporting roles with high-profile cameos. I won’t ruin the surprise by counting off a roll call of the famous faces that show up at various points in the movie, but somewhere around the umpteenth cameo, perhaps starting with the last third of the film, it becomes painfully obvious that there is little humor in these parts, as written, in and of themselves. Only due to the inside joke of “look who’s playing that role!” do any of the smaller parts garner any laughs. It’s essentially a stunt trick that begins to get old by the end of the movie, though I must admit that the climax piles on the cameos to the point where it nearly becomes funny again... but not quite.

Anger Management is rated PG-13 for strong language and some very crude, sexual content.