FINDING SHELTER IN STORM OF EMOTION.

Byline: Glenn Whipp

Film Critic

9/11 doesn't get mentioned specifically much in Mike Binder's accomplished drama "Reign Over Me." It's in the air. People talk about the guy "whose family was on the plane" or people who "were killed in a plane crash," but they can't bring themselves to say much more. One woman ruefully recounts the day "those monsters flew over here from halfway across the world and rearranged my dance card." It doesn't take much for her anger -- and sadness -- to bubble up.

Charlie (Adam Sandler), the man whose family -- a wife and three daughters -- was "on that plane," is angry, too, but he has completely sealed away his memories of family, looping around Manhattan on a motor scooter, headphones walling away intrusion, listening to songs from another time, a time before he met the loved ones he can't bring himself to recall.

"Reign Over Me" is a movie about loss and friendship and isn't specific to 9/11, apart from using the tragedy of that day to illustrate a simple fact. People like Charlie get left behind -- in New York, in New Orleans, in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Time moves on, but they're still there. How do they recover? Can they recover?

Binder ("The Upside of Anger"), who wrote and directed the movie, isn't done asking questions, because "Reign Over Me" is also about another man, Alan (Don Cheadle). On the surface, this guy has it all -- a beautiful wife (Jada Pinkett Smith), loving children and a successful career. But there's something bothering him, and to Binder's credit, Alan can't figure it out.

The movie is about these two men, old college roommates who meet again by chance, and how their renewed friendship takes them to a place where maybe they'll be OK. Maybe.

Did I mention that "Reign Over Me" is funny sometimes? (But not funny in a way you might expect from a movie starring Adam Sandler.) It's also beautifully shot in high-definition digital and the nighttime scenes in Manhattan evoke a loneliness that a lot of New Yorkers feel. For all the movies shot in New York, this is something you rarely see on screen.

Binder also artfully uses music, showing it as a means to escape -- and not always in a bad way. There's a scene where Sandler and Cheadle -- both of whom have never been better, by the way -- jam to Bruce Springsteen's "Out in the Street," one of the most joyful songs ever recorded. Sandler bashes away on drums, while Cheadle noodles on the guitar and, for a moment, all is right in the world.

The movie falters at the end when Binder takes the action to the last refuge of the desperate screenwriter -- the courtroom. It's the only time the story feels forced. Up to that point and even afterward, "Reign Over Me" unfolds with a naturalness that emphasizes uncertainty while maintaining the conviction that one can get through the worst by taking comfort in friends and finding connection with family. You can't go wrong with those sentiments or this movie.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

[e-mail]

REIGN OVER ME - Three and one half stars

(R: language, sexual references)

Starring: Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle.

Director: Mike Binder.

Running time: 2 hr. 4 min.

Playing: In wide release.

In a nutshell: Two broken men find friendship and begin the road to healing in this perceptive drama.

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Photo:

Adam Sandler, left, and Don Cheadle renew an old friendship and heal some fresh wounds in "Reign Over Me."