MOVIES REVIEWS

The Angriest Man in Brooklyn Movie Review

ByChiara Spagnoli Gabardi

May 11, 2014

Title: The Angriest Man in Brooklyn

Director: Phil Alden Robinson

Starring: Robin Williams, Mila Kunis, Melissa Leo, Peter Dinklage, James Earl Jones.

‘The Angriest Man in Brooklyn’ has a similar flavour to 1993’s drama ‘Falling Down’: a violent rampage assails the protagonist who has lead a life straight as an arrow suppressing, and therefore accumulating, angst. Hence the day comes when the pressure cooker is released and all the emotional demons in pandora’s box are set free, i.e. the man has a mental collapse!

Phil Alden Robinson’s flick presents Robin Williams as a foul-tempered Brooklyner who is told – accidentally – by a physician (Mila Kunis), he has ninety minutes to live. His reaction is to rush all over New York City to make amends. While the patient races around the city, trying to right his wrongs, the doctor attempts to find him as he tries to find what he must do in the final moments of his life. The contour of characters that populate the man’s life enrich the film with gem performances. Peter Dinklage plays as Robin William’s brother, he is very composed and work oriented and he’ll learn to overcomes his detachment to grow close again to his sibling. Whilst the splendid Melissa Leo will have her freewheeling moments of aggressive lunacy towards her husband, that will bring her to put back together the pieces of a marriage that seems crumbling. Kunis and Williams instigate each other to overcome unhappiness, since neither is content with the life they’re leading and both deliver a terrific performance. Mila Kunis is intense, spontaneous, amusing, and moving. Robin Williams, who has appeared in many films between 2010 and 2014 with supporting roles, returns to a leading role – with utmost intensity – since 2009’s ‘World’s Greatest Dad.’

Daniel Taplitz has brilliantly written the screenplay, for this remake of 1997’s Israeli film, written and directed by Assi Dayan, ‘The 92 Minutes of Mr. Baum,’ which Phil Alden Robinson manages to pace with emphasis and sentiment. For ‘The Angriest Man in Brooklyn’ depicts a frame of mind that affects us all when we have a bad day.

The film opens theatrically and on VOD May 23.

Technical: B

Acting: A

Story: A

Overall: A-

Written by: Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

angriest man in brooklyn

By Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi, is a film critic, culture and foreign affairs reporter, screenwriter, film-maker and visual artist. She studied in a British school in Milan, graduated in Political Sciences, got her Masters in screenwriting and film production and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York and Los Angeles. Chiara’s “Material Puns” use wordplay to weld the title of the painting with the materials placed on canvas, through an ironic reinterpretation of Pop-Art, Dadaism and Ready Made. She exhibited her artwork in Milan, Rome, Venice, London, Oxford, Paris and Manhattan. Chiara works as a reporter for online, print, radio and television and also as a film festival PR/publicist. As a bi-lingual journalist (English and Italian), who is also fluent in French and Spanish, she is a member of the Foreign Press Association in New York, the Women Film Critics Circle in New York, the Italian Association of Journalists in Milan and the Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean. Chiara is also a Professor of Phenomenology of Contemporary Arts at IED University in Milan.

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