Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
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.
Reign Over Me is anchored by genuinely strong performances, particularly Adam Sandler in a rare dramatic role that demonstrates surprising emotional depth alongside Don Cheadle's grounded work. The film's exploration of post-9/11 grief and male friendship is earnest and often affecting, but the plot meanders considerably in its second half and leans on some contrived narrative devices. Cinematography is competent but unremarkable for the genre. The film's premise has a certain distinctiveness in its quiet, character-driven approach to 9/11 trauma rather than spectacle, but it doesn't fully transcend its dramatic-indie conventions. The ending feels forced and overly tidy, undercutting the raw emotional honesty the film had been building toward — resolving complex trauma a bit too neatly for credibility.