Discovering the ‘Upside of Anger’

Dealing with the divorce of parents is difficult and problematic for any child to understand and live through, especially in their teenage years. The same goes for a parent leaving a family with no prior indication of where they have gone and the reason for doing so. It must be even more difficult for children to deal with a parent who tragically transforms into a completely different person due to the absence of a spouse. This is the event that takes place in Mike Binder’s dramatic comedy ‘The Upside of Anger.’
Four very different women must learn how to cope with their alcoholic, chain-smoking, inhumanly angry and struggling mother whom is having an incredibly challenging time coming to terms with her husband’s unexpected disappearance. At the same time, the mother embarks on a psychological but therapeutic journey in accepting her husband’s absence, while managing her erratic anger when taking care of her daughters.
The story revolves around Terry Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen), a suburban mother of four, whose cure for her explosive anger lies in the large consumption of alcohol. She does not have a job nor does she seem to have any will to continue living. She wishes the best for her daughters who constantly disagree with her wishes and decisions, which leaves her in denial. Terry’s daughters are very different from one another and interact with their mother in their own personal way. They all have their own problems in their lives and Terry just seems to add more unwanted pressure to them.
Terry’s oldest daughter, Hadley (Alicia Witt), is in college and has a troublesome time finding her mother’s approval for her fianc