Arlington Road (1999)

reviewed by
Edward Johnson-Ott


Arlington Road (1999) Jeff Bridges, Tim Robbins, Joan Cusack, Hope Davis, Robert Gossett, Mason Gamble. Music by Angelo Badalamenti. Screenplay by Ehren Kruger. Directed by Mark Pellington. 120 minutes. Rated R, 2 stars (out of five stars)

Review by Ed Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly www.nuvo-online.com Archive reviews at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Edward+Johnson-ott To receive reviews by e-mail at no charge, send subscription requests to pbbp24a@prodigy.com

Early in "Arlington Road," terrorism expert Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges) shows his college class a series of horrific images reminiscent of the Oklahoma City massacre, then discusses the public's willingness to accept the notion that one man could be responsible for such atrocities. "We don't want others," he explains. "We want one name and we want it fast, because it gives us our security back." That's a genuinely disturbing idea and a great way to start a movie. "Arlington Road" also boasts a corker of a closing scene that is both shocking and thought provoking. If only the parts in-between were as good.

Writer Ehren Kruger's script is the main offender, lobbing an absurd number of coincidences at the audience. While most thrillers demand a certain suspension of disbelief, Kruger asks viewers to completely disengage anything even faintly related to logic. His contrived plot stretches credulity further than those amorphous thrillers that pay- cable channels run in the wee hours of the night. Director Mark Pellington doesn't help matters much. Determined to create a nightmare-in-suburbia feel, he throws in so much gimmicky lighting and skewed camera angles that major portions of the film play like a parody of "The Twilight Zone."

Remember "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," the "there's a monster on the wing of our airplane!" horror tale featured in both the TV and movie versions of "The Twilight Zone?" In their respective takes on the lead role, William Shatner and John Lithgow stammered, twitched, jerked and shrieked in deliciously over-the-top performances that nicely complimented the outrageous story. Unfortunately, Pellington directs Jeff Bridges in the same way here, with embarrassing results. Bridges, normally an outstanding actor, must escalate from grieving husband to hysterical loon under Pellington's leering camera. Bridges' performance is not a pretty sight.

Set in a upscale suburb in Northern Virginia, the film centers around Professor Faraday, who tries to carry on a normal life with his young son, Grant (Spencer Treat Clark) and girlfriend, Brooke (Hope Davis), while still grieving the loss of his wife, an FBI agent killed during a botched raid. After rescuing an injured neighbor boy (Mason Gamble), Faraday becomes friends with the boy's parents, Oliver and Cheryl Lang (Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack). On the surface, the Langs seem like a typical all-American family, but Faraday begins noticing peculiarities in their wholesome appearance. Suspecting they may be part of some extremist group, he begins examining Oliver's background, seeking help from Brooke, as well his wife's former partner, Whit Carver (Robert Gossett). They both have strong misgivings about his mission and counsel Faraday to drop the investigation. After all, what are the chances that a terrorism expert, who lost his wife in a terrorism-related raid, would end up with terrorists living across the street from him?

Good question. While the film flirts with the notion that Faraday may simply be paranoid, it's obvious where things are going, thanks to Pellington's ham-handed direction. Oliver and Cheryl Lang peer ominously from windows and half-opened doors. They make cryptic remarks, clumsily try to block Faraday from looking at blueprints, etc., etc. Hell, the monster on the wing of the plane in the "Twilight Zone" story was more subtle than these two.

Mark Pellington is a talented man. He took big chances with his first film, "Going All the Way," and turned out an extremely dark, faithful adaptation of Dan Wakefield's caustic coming-of-age novel. But he shows no finesse here, devoting too much time to arty shots of shadows and light when he should have been adjusting the screenplay to make the plot seem more credible. Instead, we get people popping up on the lead characters at just the right time to startle them and the audience, regardless of how improbable their arrival might be, and we get an incredibly elaborate plan that could not succeed unless the conspirators had a psychic awareness of upcoming totally random actions on the part of several key individuals.

Despite such fundamental problems, "Arlington Road" does contain some rewards. Tim Robbins gives a good performance and his personal code of honor is one of the film's most fascinating elements. Joan Cusack and Hope Davis do what they can with their characters, but the women are given short-shrift by the screenplay.

Faraday's early statement to his students is a powerful one, reinforced by the surprising twist at the end of "Arlington Road." As such, even with its ludicrous screenplay and overwrought lead performance, the film still manages to pack a punch. Had the script been rewritten with an eye toward making the plot mechanics more plausible (even in light of the closing revelations, the Lang's behavior and many crucial elements of the grand conspiracy remain patently unbelievable), and had Pellington and Bridges worked together on toning down Faraday's histrionics, this could have been much more than just another popcorn thriller.

© 1999 Ed Johnson-Ott

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