The Upside review

Since I was confused about when this was released, I had to wait until this was on DVD to rent from the video store of mine and review while writing a detailed recap of it for this blog. So here’s yet another random post of this blog where I review this movie of mine.

We begin with a man looking out the window of a car, watching others do different things. The driver of the car quickly takes off while looking at the passenger who isn’t doing much. A police officer winds up on his tail. The driver tries to lose him. He is actually successful at losing it before others come up and surround the vehicle. The driver explains that the man is having a seizure, but I think that this is an act or might be due to the handicap man’s reaction. He is able to sell the act and make it to the hospital.

We then go back to six months earlier when this man is coming home from the hospital. He didn’t want extraordinary measures to save his life. Did he attempt suicide? Or did he just feel bad in general? We also see the convict who became the driver both showing up to the same interview with a Mr. Lacross. The driver is confused, thinking he is going to a cleaning gig. He arrives at a penthouse. He sees a lot of other people in this room waiting to talk to this person.

Interviews are conducted with various people regarding Mr. Lacross. One is impressed by his book. We then see the driver looking around the penthouse in question. He gets worried about his child waiting too long. All he wants is a signature on an employment application to appease a police officer. They get Willie, the current applicant, to leave while Phillip Lacross talks to the driver. Phillip offers him the job as a life auxiliary consultant which the driver thought was a janitor job. Phillip wants him for the job. It seemed as if the driver was only trying to get it since Phillip had asked what he did that put him in jail. But they will see each other in the future.

The driver goes back to where a woman lives with his child. If I had to guess, the driver hasn’t seen his child, Anthony, since he wound up in jail. He talks to Terrice about the bad place they are at. He has not given them child support. His name is Dell, it seems. It is hard to understand some of these names and know how to spell them. Dell leaves while Anthony watches what went on with his parents.

Dell talks to people who apparently used to know him from his past life as a criminal. Phillip, meanwhile, thinks about flying on a hand glider and Jenny, the woman who was with him for interviews. She greets Dell who wants the job. He wants a metro card, but is told instead that it is a live in position. He tries to get settled in his new place and gets too comfortable as he falls asleep on a bed.

Dell needs to travels with a monitor in order to do his job. Phillip is said to have been chosen because he was the worst candidate and is only given three potential strikes with Jenny being the umpire in the game in question. He has to take Phillip out of bed and needs to learn how to buckle him. He talks to the man some before feeding him breakfast.

A woman named Maggie comes over as Dell still tries to figure out some of the mystery of Phillip. She shows him more of what to do with taking care of him. Phillip wears a ring but says his wife is dead. Dell doesn’t want to do some of this stuff and is given a strike. Phillip tells Dell about his DNR. That is a Do Not Resuscitate order.

Dell sees one of the books that Phillip wrote on the shelf. The next morning, Dell is given a second strike after his pager got stuck in his shoe where he couldn’t hear it. He tries to take a shower, but it winds up having issues with the way it works. Later, he gives Phillip a shower which he has issues with again. Dell goes through some of the money that Phillip wants to donate.

When he goes through the garage, he talks to a man who is the downstairs neighbor. He then goes with Phillip on a trip in this car to another place. Phillip buys artwork there. Dell thinks that Phillip is spending too much money on some of this stuff. He gets his first paycheck which has a lot of money on it. With this money, he returns to Terrice and gives it to her. He wants a book back that was given to his son since it wasn’t his book to give.

Dell is worried about his son and borrowed car. Jenny is actually named Yvonne. I’m confused with some of this. Yvonne wants to fire him, but Phillip covers for him, saying that he gave permission to use the car in question. Phillip keeps having flashbacks to a paragliding accident. Is this why he’s paralyzed? When Dell notices that Phillip isn’t breathing, he gives his boss oxygen despite his DNR since he wants his job really bad. Dell wants to figure out why Phillip doesn’t care that much about living.

Dell takes Phillip outside to a park where they both smoke cigarettes. Peer pressure! Dell wants to know about the paragliding accident. It was poor judgment on his part to go paragliding during bad weather. He has flashbacks to the accident a lot. That, or he still dreams about being in the air.

The two of them are both high on pot and not cigarettes. They are at a hot dog place after some sort of bet that I didn’t understand. I feel that they could have done more with that. Dell wants to do an app that would find people’s drug dealers.

Dell talks about his dad being a con artist. They both spent time in jail together. Dell is worried that his son Anthony might wind up in jail, but says that Anthony is probably too smart for that. He wants to change the catheter himself since Maggie isn’t there when it needs changed. Dell can’t say the word penis as he feels that this is too weird. Yvonne is briefly there for this awkwardness.

Speaking of awkward, Dell brings two hookers over briefly. They then go to an opera where Dell tries to find a woman for Phillip. After first mocking the show, Dell gets really into it. Yvonne tells Dell that Phillip is writing letters to a woman named Lily. He tells to Yvonne about some of her life. She isn’t looking for a man right now.

Dell starts painting some during his spare time and doing other things with it as well. Dell wants to know why Phillip is quoting other people with his poetry instead of writing something original. Phillip doesn’t have much of a relationship with Lily as they haven’t talked to each other and have only written letters to each other. Dell wants to call Lily despite how others feel. But he still leaves her a message on her phone.

Yvonne wants to know what Phillip wants to do with his birthday. He is considered about his potential relationship with Lily. Dell then shows his new painting: untitled number 0. Dell takes Phillip on a drive where Anthony is waiting. He joins the two of them while Anthony plays Aretha Franklin. The three of them go to an ice cream shop. The bonding experience is ruined when Dell asks for the book back. Dell had taken this book from his boss and Anthony gave it back.

There is a surprise party for Phillip for his birthday. He is angry as he didn’t want anything. But this leads to more of a fight between them. Phillip wants various stuff of his destroyed. Yvonne walks into this place afterwards and reveals that the guests are still here.

The neighbor from earlier is suspicious of Dell since Dell has done hard time. Phillip wants him to work on this ideal app and comes into his party high in some way. Dell gets some of the performers there to do opera and other things like it. This somehow leads to rap music being played. Phillip starts to do what he calls dancing at some point. Lily calls during this point. He plans to meet her on Saturday.

Dell thinks that Phillip should take off his old wedding ring in preparation for meeting Lily. Carter had bought the painting What is Bravery? This is what Dell had painted and Carter is the neighbor. Lily shows up and she is played by Julianna Margulies. She knew about the wheelchair. Dell leaves the two of them alone. They talk to each other as they continue their date.

The date continues, but it seems a bit awkward in some places as Lily might not be so sure that she wants to stick with Phillip even if he might be a perfect piece for her. She is too honest and he wants to get out of there as soon as he can.

Later, Dell reunites with Phillip. Phillip didn’t want to talk to Lily because he was afraid of what all would go wrong with this relationship. This leads to fighting with Dell fired in the end. He looks at the check from Carter. Jason is now the new caregiver of Phillip.

Dell bought his son and baby mama a house where they now live at. Dell finds a new job. But Maggie comes and asks him for help since Yvonne quit and Phillip isn’t doing well by pushing everyone away. Phillip has a beard now. This leads to the scene from the very beginning of the movie. Dell takes this man for a drive and avoids the hospital since it was a lie to keep going on to a new place.

As they continue driving, Phillip plays Aretha Franklin’s version of opera. They arrive at a place where they both want to go paragliding. Phillip goes off on his own and Dell, after a bit of resistance, goes off on his own to do the same thing as well. They are okay together afterwards in a hotel room. Dell then wants to shave the beard that developed and he is back to his clean shaven appearance. Yvonne returns to Phillip’s life and they talk to each other. Dell leaves back for his house. Yvonne and Phillip are then seen paragliding together. Here the movie ends.

The movie seemed fairly good. I don’t know if I’d want to own it, though. (I don’t have to.) It seemed to focus on the people good enough, but still had flaws. I don’t know if they should have delved more into Dell’s past about being a criminal. They could have explained more who Yvonne is. Dell seemed to have a hard time getting rid of aspects of his criminal life, but Phillip seemed okay with it. There were some random bits here and there that they could have cut from the film and I wouldn’t have missed them. But I’d say overall that this is a good film. I wish that Julianna had more of a role in it.

That’s it for this blog post. I’m glad that I was finally able to see it. I had to pay to rent it from a store to do a full-fledged review of it. I could have seen it in theaters or on an airplane, but figured that this would be a better option even if it meant going without this review for so long. But now you get a bigger one instead of something simple with the basic format that I use. I hope that you enjoyed it. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.