"Anger Management" is Adam Sandler's follow-up movie to his great performance in "Punch Drunk Love." Paired with Jack Nicholson, the ultimate scene stealer, Sandler manages to hold his own.
He plays his usual character. Who this time around is not a happy guy: Dave Buznik's work life is hell. His boss Frank Head (Kurt Fuller) constantly steals his ideas and climbs the ladder while Dave languishes as an assistant.
He has a beautiful girlfriend, poetry teacher Linda (Marisa Tomei). But Andrew (Allen Covert), a smarmy co-worker at Dave's office and a college classmate of Linda's, seems to be circling around all of the things that Dave wants.
Dave has a hard time speaking up for himself. And though he loves Linda, he cannot even kiss her good-bye in an airport.
Then he gets on a plane headed to St. Louis. A request to the stewardess for a set of headphones turns ugly. Before you know it, we are in court. Dave is being told by the judge (the lovely and wonderful, sadly-departed Lynn Thigpen) he must attend 20 hours of an anger management course.
Believing he is innocent but wanting to just go along, Dave attends the class and meets the teacher Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson). The best-selling author thinks he can help Dave. And Dave gets paired up with Chuck (John Turturro) as an "anger buddy."
Talking with Chuck one night gets Dave into further trouble when he is arrested for fighting in a bar. The judge decides it is a drastic case: Intense therapy or jail.
The good doctor will be living with Dave for 30 days to execute an intense treatment plan. Rydell will go everywhere with Dave: To work, on dates. He will even sleep in the same bed as Dave.
Throughout their time together, Rydell will push Dave to the very edge of what he thinks he can take without blowing up.
And Buddy seems to get weirder by the moment, encouraging Dave to break up with Linda for a while, pushing Dave's boss around, letting a car fall several stories out of a parking garage.
Even though the ending felt weakened, it is a funny movie. I laughed despite knowing that some of the things that were done were the meanest things I have ever seen people do to each other.
Perhaps that is the joy of Sandler's comedies. We know better and laugh anyway. We see ourselves too readily and laugh off our nervousness.
Nicholson and Sandler appear to enjoy working off of each other. And Nicholson seems energized by this piece of foolishness.
With cameos by Bobby Knight, John McEnroe and small parts featuring Heather Graham and Woody Harrelson, the pace keeps moving down to the big finale in Yankee Stadium.
It is a fun move, which has little to do with anger management, but more about how to be assertive: A good movie to watch on a rainy day.