what we have get here be a situation . a man be find to be in distress and people want to help him in contrast way . at the end they be force to let it go . you can not fix people . and though in various aspect reign over me be conventionally hollywood and that message isn not . this story be not about charlie fineman ( adam sandler ) and a man who lose his wife and three daughter in a 9/11 plane who go into a nearly psychotic state of ptss since . it about what meet charlie do to alan johnson ( don cheadle ) and a dentist in new york who be his roommate in dental school and and know about his tragedy and spot him on the street and reconnects . charlie be rid around on a little toy motorize scooter a pretty fanciful contraption for negotiate manhattan traffic with big headphone on over a mass of unruly hair . the hair be sandler chief prop to show he derange . and the use of music a an escape must hit home to every ipod wield subway rider . charlie be a disaster and but paradoxically alan and stuck with a control wife ( jada pinkett smith ) and soon begin to envy him . charlie be live like an nutty adolescent boy with a huge trust fund ( insurance money from the tragedy ) and and start drag alan off to hang out and eat chinese and buy record and or watch a mel brook marathon at a rep house . charlie live in a nice big apartment protect by a mean landlady and redo the kitchen over and over and collect old vinyl of springsteen and the who and etc . and and play a video game call shadow of the collosus on a giant screen in a big empty living room . charlie in law be deeply concern about him and but also somehow resentful and a we learn later . alan have a new patient who be proposition him . charlie desperation make u see alan . try to help charlie partly permit alan to escape from his own stifling reality but partly just make him more acutely aware of them . cheadle and sandler make an odd couple and but that doesn not matter and because it convince that they might both need each other . charlie be desperate for the companionship of a friend who never know his family and because to escape his loss and he be pretend he never have one . and so what if a a roommate charlie slept naked and sleep walked and have terrible musical taste ( no motown ) . alan want an escape from his tidy and emasculate life . he under the thumb not just of his wife but of his dental partner and who lord it over him though it he who set up the practice . theyre white and by the way and and he black . there also the lascivious patient from hell and who seriously disrupt thing at the dental office and but start look different when charlie come by and notice she a babe . his libido seem to be lurk ready to revive at any minute . he also draw to the breast of liv tyler and a psychotherapist in the same building a the dentist who start try to treat charlie when he admit he might need help . sandler mad scene be a little too theatrical and a be a lot of the plot device ( in fact this movie feel like a play at more than one point ) and but he have several monologue where he express his sorrow in way that be deeply touch . charlie not just delusional and sad and but dangerous and violent and and all these effort to help him start to backfire . the movie be admirable in the way it convey a sense that people can not be make right . this be an interesting movie sometimes a touch one and it the first time 9/11 have be deal with in term of survivor suffering . but there be an element of comedy that seem tasteless at time and many of the people be too broadly draw and and the overly grand hollywood interior have dreadful décor while only the manhattan street look real . there a courtroom scene that be preposterous and and donald sutherland be a judge who too good to be true . alan family problem be resolve too easily with a phone call . and yet this be worth watch for the act the control and subtlety of cheadle and and sandler in a serious role almost as good a the one he have in p. t. anderson 2002 punch drunk love and though that clearly a good movie and in fact a much good one .