歯科医アランが大学時代の友人チャーリーと再会。チャーリーは9.11で家族を亡くして以来、心を閉ざしていた。アランは自分にできることを模索するが……。アダム・サンドラーの好演が光る、熱い友情を描いた感動作。
製作費: $20,000,000 (30億円)
興行収入: $22,222,308 (33億円)
推定収支: $2,222,308 (3億円)
※製作費・興行収入はTMDBのデータを参照しています。収支は(興行収入 - 製作費)で算出したFindKey独自の推定値であり、広告宣伝費や諸経費は含まれません (1ドル=150円換算)。
監督: Mike Binder
脚本: Mike Binder
音楽: Rolfe Kent
制作: ジャック・ジャラプト / Lynwood Spinks / Michael Rotenberg
撮影監督: Russ T. Alsobrook
制作会社: Columbia Pictures / Sunlight Productions / Relativity Media / Mr. Madison / Madison 23 Productions
Dentist “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.
