After Punch-Drunk Love and Spanglish, Adam Sandler further enhanced his reputation as a serious actor with this post-9/11 drama. Sandler plays Charlie, a man who has dropped off the radar after the loss of his wife and daughters in one of the hijacked jets. Five years later, Alan (Don Cheadle), his former college roommate, unexpectedly runs across him in the street in New York, and, aghast at Charlie's decline, re-establishes a relationship with him. Alan seemingly has it all, but as the men become re-acquainted it turns out he has his own problems and is equally in need of support. Reign over Me is contrived and more than a little corny, and it lacks zip. But the acting, by a cast that also includes Donald Sutherland and Liv Tyler, is top drawer. This may well prove to be the film that does for Sandler what Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind did for Jim Carrey.

A man who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City runs into his old college roommate. Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief.