Reign Over Me Essay

Reign Over Me was a film about the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers, and how Charlie Fineman, who is played by Adam Sandler, loses what matters to him in life. In the film, it has been five years since Charlie’s daughter and wife passed in the attacks, and he goes from being a successful and good person, to a former shell of himself. He doesn’t talk about his daughter and wife being killed, which makes his in-laws concerned about his stability, and his in-laws believe he has completely pushed the tragedy out of his mind. When Charlie and his old college roommate, named Alan Johnson, meet each other for the first time in a while, Alan is in awe at what Charlie has become. Charlie’s hair has become long, and he always wears earphones to have the music take him away

Charlie doesn’t really talk or interact with the therapist, and ends his sessions with the therapist after just minutes. Charlie’s therapist ultimately tells Charlie that at some point in his life he is going to have to tell someone about his tragic story. After the therapist tells Charlie this, he sees Alan and tells him the story, but then he attempts to commit suicide by cop and thus, he winds up in a sanitarium. A legal trial then happens, and the Judge in the case must decide if he is going to send Charlie to get psychiatric care without his consent. Charlie goes up to his in-laws whom he sees in the lobby at the courthouse, and tells them he never takes pictures of his dead daughter and wife around with him, and he never talks about them, because he is constantly seeing them in the people that walk the street. Ultimately, it is decided that Charlie should not be committed, he then moves into a new apartment, and no longer must face the horrible memories of what happened to his daughter and wife at his old house. In the end of the movie, Alan goes, sees Charlie, his wife calls him and tells him that she loves him and wants him to come back