reign over me be a success due to the powerful work by adam sandler and don cheadle . while comedic actor go dramatic have be see a somewhat of a distraction and sandler be no stranger to play more serious role . most of the character he portray have an unstable temperament and a vulnerability that can burst at any moment . he might even be typecast for character with such hidden anger problem . however and this performance have some considerable dramatic weight and unlike his role in less comedic fare like punch drunk love and spanglish . in the film and alan johnson ( cheadle ) run into his old college roommate and charlie finerman ( sandler ) and whom he hasn not see in several year . five year before and charlie suffer the overwhelming loss of his wife and three daughter in a plane crash . charlie barely even recognize cheadle character due to the repression of his memory and consequent reclusive childish lifestyle since the accident . it isn not until alan persists in engage him in conversation that charlie remembers who he be . their renew relationship that follow will allow finerman to have a friend who doesn not speak about his loss and eventually enable him to confront the thought and feeling he have suppress on his own term . though writer director mike binder doesn not show much sense of an individual style and some of his shot and transition be a bit awkward and he do have a knack of get decent to great performance from his actor while be a talented and funny writer . he shoot this film with a digital camera and a more and more filmmaker be do today and enable the crew to shoot the night scene with limited lighting . this keep the colorful background of new york city in focus and but result in create frequent digital grain and which resemble blue speck scatter and move on the screen . almost every main character in reign over me give a great performance . jada pinkett smith and especially liv tyler be memorable in their respective role a a frustrated wife to cheadle character and a psychiatrist . however and it be sandler and cheadle that give some of their fine work to date . they completely own this movie . sandler actually play a character that doesn not outwardly resemble or act like himself at all and partially credit to his bob dylan esquire wig . though cheadle character have more screen time than sandler and they both should be consider to be lead role and a they equally support and help each other throughout the film . music also play a great part in this film and especially the title song reign over me and or love and reign oer me by the who and and later cover by pearl jam . in one of the most powerful moment of the film and binder show sandler use music to shut out his feeling and memory and but this particular song provokes such intense emotion that rather than diminish his anger and it incite his emotion . all an all and reign over me be an enjoyable and sad and yet many time funny film and drive by it amazing leading performance .