Reign Over Me (Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett Smith, Liv Tyler, Donald Sutherland, Mike Binder) – I met Mike Binder about eight years ago at my brother’s house as he was finishing up the not-so-classic, Blankman, starring Damon Wayans, my brother’s client. Mike was directing, but he was also as budding writer and actor. Since that time, I’ve watched his career closely as he ventured into acting in films like The Contender (he was Joan Allen’s chief of staff) and Minority Report (where he played the alleged killer and child pornographer). He turned to cable TV where he wrote, directed and acted in The Mind of the Married Man. And he also kept writing, directing and acting in films, only this time including the highly acclaimed The Upside of Anger. Well, the mature Mike Binder is a triple threat in this wonderful, powerful, painful drama starring arguably the biggest box-office star in Hollywood today, Adam Sandler, and unarguably one of the best actors there in Don Cheadle. What an ensemble! As much as this is Binder’s movie, he turns it over to Sandler, who electrifies the screen as he plays from disjointed and disheveled to erratic and explosive. Wow! Cheadle allows himself to be upstaged as the ex-roommate who spots his long-lost friend riding his scooter through the streets of New York. Sandler’s Charlie Fineman lost his wife and three daughters in one of the airplanes on 9/11 and he completely repressed it, suffering mental illness (described here as Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome) and disconnecting himself from everything and anyone from that period. He loves Springsteen and old ’70s and ’80’s artists, but doesn’t practice dentistry anymore and lives a hermit’s existence, watched over by his landlady. Cheadle, whose character (Dr. Alan Johnson) went to dental school with Fineman, lives a seemingly perfect life, but it’s invisibly dysfunctional, sublimating himself to his wife (Jada Pinkett Smith) and daughter as he goes through the motions of his profession. Charlie wakens him from his personal stupor and “fixes” him just as he seeks to “fix” Charlie. They are a great duo, playing perfectly off each other. The side characters are less developed and actually detract from this exceptional film. Liv Tyler is completely miscast as a young psychiatrist with a plush office in Cheadle’s expensive ($500,000/month rent) office building but she adds star power. Donald Sutherland has a small part as the judge before whom Charlie eventually comes. Binder himself plays Charlie’s last best friend, who Charlie him away after the tragedy but who remains his financial guardian. And veterans Robert Klein and Melinda Dillon play Charlie’s in-laws, who desperately want Charlie in their lives so they can hold on to their daughter and grand-daughters. This is the best movie of the year so far and may even be an Oscar contender. Certainly, Sandler deserves very serious consideration. Don’t miss Mike Binder’s film, please.