Mike Binder

Actor-writer-director Mike Binder

by Jessica Hundley | Published January 21, 2005

Costner as Denny Davies

Mike Binder’s latest movie, The Upside of Anger, begins with a lingering shot of Joan Allen’s face, her porcelain skin pulled taut, her eyes riveted ahead and rimmed with tears. The film goes on to spend the bulk of its time on that face which, over the course of two hours, expresses a gamut of emotions, most of them drawn from the palette of anger—pure, clean fury, bitter frustration, spiteful jealousy and maternal wrath.

Allen plays Terry Wolfmeyer, an upper-middle-class wife whose equilibrium is shattered by the disappearance of her husband. Suspecting him of leaving the country with his young secretary, Allen effectively falls apart, spending her afternoons staring at the TV, dressed in nothing more than a negligee and a gin and tonic stupor. Her four just-grown daughters move through the house on tiptoes, avoiding—as best they can—the fragile ice of their mother’s emotions.

"I set out to do kind of a parable on misplaced anger," explains Binder. "There were experiences I’d had in my own life and talks I’d had with friends about the energy we put toward things that ultimately never come to pass, or never really were what we thought they were to begin with. I think, in general, we do that in our day-to-day life and we also do that in our society. We rant and we rave and yet we don’t really know what to be upset about at any given time. And that’s where I started with this film."

Erika Christensen and Evan Rachel Wood as Andy and Lavender Wolfmeyer in The Upside of Anger.

Binder has been combining his writing, directing and acting skills for some time now. The 45-year old Detroit native is a well-respected character actor and screenwriter whose credits include various television series as well as high profile roles in Rod Lurie’s The Contender and Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report. The Upside of Anger is a project Binder had been working on for some time, writing in between tapings of his critically-acclaimed HBO series, "The Mind of the Married Man."

"I write a lot and most of the time my agent and my manager just tell me to shelve it," laughs Binder. "But for some reason this script hit a chord with people and everyone responded. I showed it to a lot of people and everyone had something to say about it—something good—which I hadn’t really expected. It’s funny because I was doing it for myself; I didn’t have a lot invested in the script in terms of expectations, and it just sort of evolved as I wrote it. And then, suddenly women were calling me up from the agency saying, ‘You don’t know me, but I just read your script and I loved it.’ I think there’s something about Terry’s anger. However irrational, there’s just something about it that we can all relate to."

In The Upside of Anger, that anger finally begins to ebb as comic relief arrives, knocking at the back door in the form of Denny Davies (a wonderful Kevin Costner), a soft-spoken, rather soft-brained neighbor who is a former baseball star going to seed in the suburbs. Eventually, and unexpectedly, an ad hoc friendship forms between Terry and Denny, sprung from a mutual loneliness and shared surrender. The two are merely waiting out a long string of afternoons and it surprises them both when they begin to take some pleasure in each other’s company.

Kevin Costner and Mike Binder review a scene.

For Binder, the film provided a chance to allow his characters the kind of canvas he craves: A film that utilizes emotional range rather than action scenes, explosions and special effects.

"We didn’t do a lot of razzmatazz," he says. "We didn’t build it up or make it complicated and that was really by design... because then the film has to really deal with the people in front of the camera. There are no fireworks going off at any place in this movie, other than in Joan."

Allen is nothing short of spectacular in the film and the ensemble cast of young actresses—Erika Christensen, Keri Russell, Alicia Witt and Evan Rachel Wood—circle around her, each gaining something tangible from the proximity to Allen’s talent. Wood, in particular, is pitch-perfect as the baby of the family, observing her mother’s disillusionment with a Zen calm and a touch of adolescent bemusement.

"We didn’t do a lot of razzmatazz. We didn’t build it up or make it complicated and that was by design... because then the film has to deal with the people in front of the camera."

Terry Wolfmeyer is simultaneously tragic and comic and the film doesn’t shy away from this fascinating contradiction. Allen and Binder allow Terry to evolve into a nuanced, multifaceted character, a woman who feels remarkably authentic. It’s this realism that allows us to love her even when she’s spitting nails. We find ourselves rooting for her, cheering her on, despite her weaknesses.

"I had worked with Joan on The Contender," recalls Binder. "She saw a movie I did and asked me to write a script for her. I think Joan is one of the best actresses working in the business; she’s really underrated. I think she’s an amazing person—and she’s also the hardest working person I know. She brings the most skills to the table and she’s not stingy with them. She’s like, ‘Let’s rifle through the box, any color you want, I’m here to play.’ She had this amazing ability to turn the knob to another level."

An unexpected friendship forms between Costner and Joan Allen’s characters in The Upside of Anger.

Costner gives one of the better performances of his career as a man whose past success has left him with nothing for which to prepare for his future life. Yet despite his paralysis, Denny is surprisingly charming and optimistic—baffled by circumstance, but relentless in his good intentions.

"I liked Kevin Costner for that role from the beginning," says Binder. "I was a comedian for years and I guess Kevin used to come in and see my show. So he took a look at the script and said he wanted to do it. I think he saw his character like an old English sheepdog, like a big fluffy dog that wanders through the neighborhood and winds up at the back door. And this is the backdoor which he came in and never left. I find the story interesting from his character’s point of view. He’s just kind of waiting for the next game, the next thing to fill his life," Binder laughs.

"It’s easy for actors to surprise you," he says of Costner’s incredible performance. "I think with a lot of actors working today, you’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg of what they can do, because of the kind of movies being made. I’m doing a movie with Ben Affleck right now (Man About Town) and every day I’m thinking, ‘Why don’t people know what kind of talent this guy’s got?’ He’s similar to Joan in that he can hit every color and mark. You just haven’t seen him do it, because in that big studio world that he and guys like Costner put themselves in, the stories and the roles are just not all that interesting. It’s like having a great racehorse that never runs."

“Suddenly women were calling me saying, ‘You don’t know me, but I just read your script and I loved it.’ I think there’s something about Terry’s anger—however irrational—thatwe can all relate to.”

This is, without a doubt, one of the main reasons why Binder continues writing and directing. He’s got his own hilarious turn in The Upside of Anger as a sleazy radio producer who seduces a Wolfmeyer daughter. But it’s his insistence on making the kind of films he wants to be in that lends the movie the same kind of giddy, proud defiance embodied in Terry Wolfmeyer herself.

"It’s hard for me to get movies going, because I demand a lot of control. I just don’t want to make a movie and put it through the system," he admits. "But this one came together pretty easily; it just felt good. Every movie is hard to make, but this one was so filled with emotion. I think part of the reason it worked is that everyone got along so well; they became a sort of real family. We took over this house in England and everyone spent a lot of great time together.

"Basically, it’s exactly what I want to be doing. I just want to make movies that are real and feel good and honest and I want to be able to keep making them. And I think as long as you try to do that, try to make things that mean something to you and not get caught up in the desire for money or counting numbers, then you’ll be okay. I really believe that." MM

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