Anger is one of the strongest emotions that human beings can experience. So strong, in fact, that it sometimes can cause us to do and say things that are unexplainable: things we'd never suspect we were capable of doing or saying, and most always we end up regretting what we've done under its influence.

But is there an upside to this emotion? That is the question that The Upside of Anger dares to ask.

From the beginning of the film until the bitter end, we are asked to bear witness to one of the most remarkable displays of anger ever captured in cinema, and there are very few breaks in between. Terry Wolfmeyer -- played by Joan Allen in yet another tour de force for the versatile actress -- is a fuming, hostile woman who just so happens to be the focus of director Mike Binder's new dramedy about relationships, family and everything that comes between.

Of course, Terry wasn't always indignant. It just so happens that her husband has recently run out of the country with another woman and left her with four impossibly different daughters. It is our treat (or lack thereof) to bear witness to the new Terry: the all-drinking, all-raging, all the time, mother on the edge.

How can Binder ask us to join him in all of Terry's madness and get away with it? Well, he didn't quite leave her alone. Kevin Costner -- in yet another role as an ex-great-ballplayer -- has one of his finest performances as Terry's boozing partner and neighbor, Denny Davies. Playing his character as easily as if he were slipping on a pair of old shoes, Costner joins Allen in giving a cynical but straightforward performance that helps ease the load of tension present in this film.

Now about that tension. I'm feeling as though people who see this film are going to take it the wrong way. For those who look at the glass as being half-full, I think the movie is going to be perfectly understandable. But for the other part of the population, it may be a little too much to handle. I say this because at some point during the film everyone is going to question Terry's and Denny's new attitude towards the world. In their minds, they've already been put through the washing machine and hung out to dry on too many occasions, so what's left to do but stay as dirty as possible?

Binder realizes that this particular outlook on life is one that is both rich in humor and devastation alike, and he mixes the two together to form a poignant story. With the help of old pros like Costner and Allen, he gets more out of that story than he probably ever imagined he could. Both actors fully embody their characters and by the time the credits roll around, whether we like it or not, we feel as though they're telling us the truth about life.

But what have they really told us anyway? What has Binder told us? In my opinion, all of the players are telling us that life is capable of throwing us some very harsh curveballs, and how we react to them explains more about our characters than anything else in the world could. Does it pay to get angry, as Terry has? You could argue that it does. But what this movie is saying is that sometimes anger, or whatever emotion comes along, can have both an upside and downside.

For a long time in this picture we're led to believe that Terry's anger can only have an upside. After all, the fury that she displays takes her miles away from her position as a deserted wife, so why wouldn't she want to feel that way? But with the arrival of an unexpected development near the film's conclusion, the flip side of her behavior is finally revealed. People might think that this event is unfair and something of a cop out, but to them I simply say, "hey, that's life."