Arlington Road Review
by "David N. Butterworth" (dnb AT dca DOT net)July 1st, 1999
ARLINGTON ROAD
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 1999 David N. Butterworth
***1/2 (out of ****)
In the wake of the recent Columbine High School tragedy, and the not-so-recent Oklahoma City bombing, some people felt that a film like the incendiary "Arlington Road," with its homegrown terrorism theme, might have difficulty securing a widespread release. But finally moviegoers are being given an opportunity to see it, an opportunity well worth pursuing.
"Arlington Road," for all of the difficult memories it may reawaken, is an excellent motion picture.
The only sequence more shocking than the film's disturbing opener is the last, a heart-pounding, brilliantly-constructed series of events that comes close to matching the surprise and unconventionality of "Psycho"'s famous shower scene. No amount of cold hard currency will force me to reveal the film's startling denouement, but if you don't leave the theater visibly shaken then blood does not flow in your veins.
Sandwiched between these two cinematic highpoints is a taut, tense, pulse-quickening film which raises the question "What do your neighbors get up to behind closed doors?" and then goes on to answer that question in truly terrifying style.
The film stars Jeff Bridges, Tim Robbins, and Joan Cusack and is written and directed by Mark Pellington, who shows great promise with this, his second feature. Bridges plays Michael Faraday, a history professor at a District of Columbia university who teaches a class on terrorism. After helping the injured son of some new neighbors from across the street, Bridges begins to suspect the normal-looking Langs of plotting a diabolical scheme involving explosive devices. Normal-looking, that is, except for Robbins' severe haircut; just one look at that do and you *know* he's guilty!
Faraday's paranoia builds to national security-threatening proportions, much to the frustration of his girlfriend (sympathetically played by Hope Davis), and leads to a confrontation that thrusts his whole family into immediate danger.
Perhaps the scariest thing about the film is the justifiable fear of a normal guy realizing how little he knows about the true characters of his closest neighbors, what they might have hidden behind drapes, buried in basements, or locked away in attics. One of Pellington's trump cards is that he doesn't tip the audience off earlier than necessary in determining who's the real crazy in this drama. And he made wise casting choices in maintaining that suspense: Bridges is brilliant, as is Robbins, and Cusack (in a rare straight role) has hardly been better.
In addition to the fine performances, Angelo Badalamenti's creepy score helps crank up the tension several notches.
Several years ago, during the filming of a similar Jeff Bridges mad-bomber thriller called "Blown Away," special effects experts miscalculated and blew out windows of unrigged buildings adjacent to the set. Be prepared to be blown away by "Arlington Road": it carries that amount of unexpected power.
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David N. Butterworth
[email protected]
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
