In “Reach Me,” Thomas Jane’s character, Wolfie, is an undercover cop who can’t stop shooting people dead. Some know Jane from HBO’s “Hung.”
Danny Aiello’s Father Paul can’t stop drinking.
And Father Paul can’t stop Wolfie from killing people. Although the cop comes to him constantly for confession.
On a prison rec-room TV, a talk-show host interviews a rapper, played by Nelly, who waxes poetic about the self-help book “Reach Me.” It’s so compelling that when a prison-lifer tries to change the channel, Colette (Kyra Sedgwick), who’s in jail for hubby-killing, slams the woman’s head into a wall.
“Reach Me” is a fun little ditty of a dirty movie (dirty as in violent) about all these various and sundry, fair-to-middling bad people who eventually come across this book and start trying to change their lives for the better. Their paths cross and re-cross throughout the movie.
Sylvester Stallone plays Roger’s editor, Gerald. Roger (Kevin Connolly of HBO’s “Entourage”) is a journalist who can’t quit smoking. Gerald rants about being a winner and excoriates Roger for being an ashtray no woman will ever want to kiss.
He sends Roger to find the author of “Reach Me.” He finds the man, whose name is Teddy Raymond (Tom Berenger), a reclusive former football coach, and pesters him ruthlessly, calling him a fraud, until Teddy can’t take it anymore and makes Roger stand in front of the ocean all night and scream “I’m Roger and I don’t smoke!” He is successful.
