The Downside of Joan Allen

All the critics are raving about Joan Allen's performance in "The Upside of Anger". She's a good actress. Those "daisy chain" scenes in "The Contender" couldn't have been pulled off by any second-rate hack (read: Kelly Preston). But I don't know about this most recent performance. It was a little overwrought. Too "Ben Stiller-I'm so highstrung and flummoxed by the incompetencies of others". I mean, we get it. The title of the movie tells us it's a film about anger. The moronic opening voiceover by the preternaturally wise youngest daughter tells us to watch out because Joan's character is one crazy bitch on the edge. So do we really have to see the same clenched teeth, speechless, neck veins bulging "I can't take this anymore" face from her in every scene? Is that great acting nowadays? In this movie, Joan's neck is just too long, her body too rail thin and her clothes and hair too impeccably assembled. All four of those daughters of hers would be majorly drug addicted, eating disordered sluts. Instead, each daughter mildly dabbles in one or the other of these vices and the movie misses out on a great opportunity to show how perfect moms fuck up their daughters way more than imperfect ones.