The Angriest Man in Brooklyn (Quick Review)

There’s a fine line between effectively balancing comedy with drama and completely messing it up; it takes both skill and an understanding of timing to correctly make a comedy-drama.  If done correctly, said film could become a masterpiece; if done poorly you end up getting The Angriest Man in Brooklyn.  Despite being labeled on its Wikipedia page as a “comedy-drama”, the film shows zero understanding of how to balance the two genres.  The Angriest Man in Brooklyn is a perfect example of how a good concept can be so easily screwed up.

The story of a bitter man falsely told he has 90 minutes to live sounds like a very interesting concept for a movie; it’s made even more appealing with an All-Star cast of Robin Williams, Mila Kunis, Peter Dinklage, James Earl Jones, and Louie CK.  Yet from the very beginning the film seems determined to screw itself over, with a much larger percent of the film being drama (a lot of which is overblown and hammy) over dark and crude humor.  When it does appear however, the humor is scattered throughout in the most unnecessary and inappropriate scenes; resulting in a mess where a character has a dramatic mental breakdown, immediately followed by some crass joke that spoils any touching moment(s) present.

A shame too, as despite being overblown at times there is some semblance of effective drama in the film, as well as the occasional chuckle from a decent joke or scene; such as when our dying man decides to go make passionate love to his wife one last time, much to the bewilderment of his spouse.  The wife’s perplexity over her husband’s dire need for sex is quite entertaining, but ultimately ruined by the sudden change of tone from humorous to a serious (and highly unnecessary) fight scene between them.  The bizarre mood shifts, unbalanced comedy-drama, and occasional inflated acting turns The Angriest Man in Brooklyn into an uneven mess that’s more boring and bland than it should be.  If you want to see a recent comedy-drama done right, I suggest you watch Jeff, Who Lives at Home instead; a far superior balanced, funny, and touching film than this flop.