In the tragicomedy Reign Over Me, middle-class dentist Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) occasionally needs to see his delectable shrink (played by Liv Tyler) to check he's on the straight and narrow. He certainly needs help when he stumbles by chance across a sighting of a longlost former college roommate Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler). Down on his luck Charlie has been suffering since he lost his family in 9/11 and is only occasionally showing signs of coping with real life.

Johnson tries to help Fineman. Johnson also has to cope with a screwy patient (played by Saffron Burrows). Meanwhile, Johnson's wife has to show indefatigable patience since her hubbie is never home.

I wanted to like this film more than I was able to. I like Don Cheadle as an actor (who doesn't?). Here you have Adam Sandler, unusually, in a dramatic role - and what really grated was that unimaginatively he'd been made into something of a Bob Dylan lookalike - and a poor one at that.

It doesn't help the story that the Alan Johnson character devotes little time to his family, it didn't seem believable that he would abandon them quite as much as he does and more could have been made of tensions within the family (not devoting time for his kids and so on, they all seemed too conveniently understanding).

Indeed much of this film relies on details falling too conveniently into place or not being explored enough. There were odd moments that were either funny or moving but I wanted more of both really in a film that meanders around its characters without really touching on anything hard-hitting.

Paula Newsome is the best thing in the film, playing a great supporting role as a sharp wisecracking dental assistant called Melanie. She has all the best lines and provides welcome relief from the cloying over-egged pudding of angst that makes up much of the rest of the film.