The Angriest Man in Brooklyn (2014)

** ½ out of ****

The last theatrical release from Robin Williams prior to his death by suicide is a real mixed bag. The storyline isn’t particularly great, the performances aren’t especially wonderful and the irony of the plot is at times painful. But it isn’t a bad movie, though I don’t know if I can go so far as to call it actually a good one.

Williams plays Henry Altman, a once happy family man made bitter and angry by the death of his eldest son two years earlier. His anger spills into every relationship and event in his life to the point of paranoia, as he feels everything and everyone is against him. Williams seems a little too likable to really pull this off, but he does have moments where he is absolutely convincing. On what he believes is a routine visit to his doctor he ends being told by an intern (Mila Kunis) that he is dying of a brain aneurism. In his raging reaction to the news he angrily demands to know how much time he has left and the terrified intern sees the words “90 minutes” on a flyer on her desk. You can guess what happens. Henry leaves the office believing he has an hour and a half to live.

The rest of the film covers two series of events: Henry's attempts to try to wrap up his life in 90 minutes and the intern's desperate chase to find him before it's too late.

“The Angriest Man in Brooklyn” tries very hard to offer us some real emotion, and whereas the popular critics felt it failed I found it often succeeds. Henry’s frenzied attempts to meet up with meaningful influences on his life fails miserably, as does his attempt to reconcile with his surviving son. Meetings with his brother and his wife go even more poorly and he ends up considering suicide on the Brooklyn Bridge. Given the way Williams’ own life ended, I found myself not liking this aspect of the film through no fault of its own. Just too sad and ironic.

Overall, I found this movie to be worth the time spent watching it, and any fan of Williams I believe will find the same. It very rightfully won’t be mentioned at the Oscars, but doesn’t deserve the critical panning it received. Some genuinely touching moments occur and meaningful words said, and there are a decent number of laughs as well. I enjoyed Robin Williams at least as much as anyone, and I think this is a worthy entry to his movie career. You may not like the subject matter but it’s still worth seeing, even if just to let Robin make you laugh one last time.