Anger Management is a 2003 comedy film which starred Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson, was directed by Peter Segal and was written by David S Dorfman. It was produced by Revolution Studios in association with Sandler's production company Happy Madison Productions and was distributed by Columbia Pictures.
Plot
The movie starts out in 1978, where a young Dave Buznik sits on a street corner, looking at the girl of his dreams jumping rope. She comes over and wants to play truth or dare. He picks dare, and she says to kiss her. Right as he's about to, the school bully Arnie Shankman pulls down his pants, embarrassing him in front of everybody. In the present day, a grown up Dave Buznik (Adam Sandler) is about to get on a plane for a business meeting. He works for a cat clothing catalog. His girlfriend Linda (Marisa Tomei) comes with him. Right as he's about to leave she asks for a kiss. He says that people are looking and he doesn't like it when people observe him showing signs of affection. He gives her a handshake and gets on the plane.
On the plane, a person is in his assigned seat. Dave is invited to sit beside a person who introduces himself as Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson). Buddy seems very annoying and laughs out loud at a movie. Not wanting Dave to miss out, he asks for Dave to get a headset. Dave asks for one, but the flight attendant he asks just starts talking nonstop to another flight attendant, generally ignoring his request. Dave asks her again, tapping her on the arm, and she demands that he lower his voice and keep calm, although he is quite calm. Eventually, the flight's air marshal steps in, and Dave unwittingly says a remark the air marshal takes to be racist. Dave apologizes, and the air marshal again tells him to calm down. At this, Dave shouts, "I'm calm!!", and swiftly gets tasered by the air marshal.
The next scene is in a court with Dave on trial. He is found guilty of an assault charge against the flight attendant, and the judge (Lynne Thigpen, in her last role) declares that he should pay $3500 and go for anger management sessions.
When Dave arrives at his first therapy date, he sees Buddy standing on the balcony, conversing. Dave realizes that he will be conducting the session and greets him. He persuades him to sign his papers, but Buddy states that Dave must go through one session first. At the session, he meets a diverse group of characters with assorted mental issues. During the session, he loses his temper more than once, mainly due to Buddy's facetious attempts to get Dave to open up to the group. After the session, Buddy says that he wants to extend Dave's therapy because of the combative behavior he just showed. He begins by assigning him to an "Anger Ally", Chuck (John Turturro), an excitable Grenada invasion veteran with a penchant for violence and profanity. That night, they go to a bar, where Chuck picks a fight with two men (one of whom is blind). The confrontation escalates into a huge brawl and Dave is viciously attacked by the blind man with his cane. Attempting to wrest it away, Dave accidentally strikes a waitress in the face.
Dave appears back in court and is required by the judge to spend one year in jail. Just then, Buddy steps in and talks to the judge about an alternative to the one year term in jail for Dave. She then changes her mind due to her respect for Buddy and then sentences him to 30 days of intensive anger management sessions with Buddy. Buddy moves in with Dave and immediately starts laying down rules of conduct. He is required to accompany Dave to work, raising Dave's ire on the first day of this arrangement as he causes Dave's lateness (by forcing Dave to cook him breakfast and smashing the bowl when he deemed the breakfast not to his liking, as well as stopping Dave's car in the middle of a bridge). When they get there, Buddy insults Dave's contemptuous boss (Kurt Fuller) and smart aleck rival (Allen Covert), embarrassing Dave further. Later, Dave answers a call saying that Buddy's mother is having non life-threatening surgery in Boston. Dave tells Buddy, who assumes the worst and begins sobbing. To make him feel better, Dave says the surgery isn't serious. Buddy says it was a good joke and that he's gonna get him back, revealing that Dave must go with him to Boston. Before they leave, Buddy finds his car has been blocked in its parking space. After shattering the offending car's window, removing the parking break, and leaving his information, Buddy rams it off the high rise lot.
After checking on Buddy's mother, they stop at a bayside restaurant. Buddy asks Dave to go to the bar and pick up a beautiful woman (Heather Graham). He tries and fails miserably. Buddy asks him do to it with more confidence and a choice phrase of his own invention. This works. After a couple of drinks, Dave realizes that Buddy is gone and goes to the woman's home. There, the woman tries to seduce him, but he says he has a girlfriend and she kicks him out. He catches a ride to where Buddy's staying. Buddy says he told Linda all about the encounter at the bar. Dave cannot believe Buddy would betray his trust.
On the way back to New York they decide to be friends again. Buddy takes a detour to a Buddhist temple, where the former Arnie Shankman (John C. Reilly) is a monk. Buddy wants Dave to confront him, which appears impossible given Dave's reluctance and Arnie's peaceful manner. However, Buddy initiates a confrontation by relaying non-existent insults Dave has told him about Arnie and his family. Dave beats Arnie in a fight, while Buddy shoots at the monks with a water gun, causing them to attack him. However, both Buddy and Dave escape from the monastery.
When they return, Dave talks to Linda, who wants to have a separate relationship for a while. They agree, with Dave learning that Buddy has started dating Linda. Dave attacks Buddy and is placed back in court. Buddy files a restraining order against him, but drops the charges. With his boss waiting for his latest assignment, Andrew being particularly annoying and with Buddy dating Linda, Dave goes on a rampage. He humiliates his boss and punches Andrew in the face.
He had learned from Andrew that Buddy is taking Linda out to a New York Yankees game that night. Dave thinks that Buddy is going to propose marriage to Linda, since Dave had spoken about proposing in this manner himself. He races to the stadium, where he manages to get onto the field and grab a microphone from the singer preparing the United States National Anthem. He gets Linda to stand up and he runs up to her. He asks her to marry him and she says that before she makes her decision, he has to kiss her in front of everybody. He does (with some encouragement from Rudolph Guiliani) and as they're kissing the scoreboard displays a good luck wish to Dave and Linda from Buddy. Dave learns he has graduated from anger management and is confused. He finds Buddy, who says that everything that happened was a setup and all directed toward his therapy. It turns out Buddy is good friends with almost everyone Dave met. Linda enrolled Dave into therapy because she was worried about him and it started on the plane.
The film ends as Dave pulls a joke on Buddy, having a friend of his pose as the owner of the car Buddy ruined earlier in the movie. The friend pulls out a gun, and Dave stands up to him, citing what he learned from Buddy, it's revealed the gun is a water gun, which Buddy used on the monks earlier. The group laugh and finish by singing "I Feel Pretty".
Cast
Cameos
Themselves
Critical reception
Anger Management received rather mixed reviews from movie critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 43% of critics gave the film positive reviews, with an average reviewer score of 5.1/10, based on 179 reviews.[1] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 52 out of 100, based on 38 reviews.[2]
This was Lynne Thigpen's last film—she died only a month before the film's release—and is dedicated in her memory.
Trivia
- Retired tennis player John McEnroe makes a cameo appearance in the movie; McEnroe was known for having anger problems during his tennis career.
References
External links
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