I liked this film and thought that overall it was quite an honest production. Morally-speaking the biggest thing that jumps out from The Upside of Anger is the fact that Terry jumps into bed with Denny not too long after believing her husband has left her. Which, though clearly not in accordance with Catholic teaching [which holds that a man should stay faithful and forgiving to his wife and vice versa even if they do engage in extra-marital affairs - at least until the point if and when the marriage is annulled], is in many ways given today's society, an understandable reaction. The thing that fascinates me about films like this is how they hold audience empathy for two alcoholics, one of whom is in effect cheating on her husband, the other of whom has few boundaries in his pursuit of women. At the same time, the filmmakers also effectively manage to cast another guy off as the bad guy for his pursuit of a young attractive girl.

My conclusion is that it works for several reasons, some subtle, some not-so subtle. The not-so-subtle reason is that both protagonists are quite open in displaying their faults, their anger and their frustration. Those things are not ideal and are in no way desirable things, but at least other people have some idea of who the person is that they are interacting with. The other factors are more subtle, for instance there is no suggestion that Terry and Denny were engaged in anything untoward all the time that Terry was believed to be with her husband. The first instance of a potential sexual encounter also occurred in a time of high-emotion and was not pre-meditated. On this same occasion Denny also showed a high-degree of feeling uncomfortable with the situation and actually went and hid himself away. Finally, one thing that does help to get the audience on side with Terry in a big way is that her husband is believed to have acted in a very dishonest way, not only leaving his wife but his young daughters too, whilst Terry is left holding the fort. Juxtaposed to these situations, Adam (Mike Binder) makes eyes for Andy (Erika Christensen) on a purely superficial and sexual level from the moment he lays eyes on her - his intentions from minute one are dishonest. Plus there is a large age gap that just doesn't ring true.

So all-in-all I thought this was a pretty good film depicting a broken family and how in reality people deal with their anger. The short exploration of gay attraction was also handled in a commendable way, and I thought the voice-over conclusion at the end, with respects to the positive character growth that can result from such situations was also good. Throughout the film there is also an implicit acknowledgement of the importance of the traditional family structure with a married man and a woman at the head of that (hence Denny being asked in the car if he was going to marry Terry).