`Arlington Road' Reaches Its Destination by Homer Yen (c) 1999
`Arlington Road' is a film that I would characterize as ‘odd' for a summertime release. As you watch the film, it almost feels as if you're taking a summer course at your local community college called `The Current Socio-political Environment of Terrorism.' Would taking this kind of course be of any interest to you? Probably not when the classroom to the right features extra-terrestrials on parade and the classroom to the left features lesson in sex and baked goods. But that is not to say that this is a bad film. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I reflect positively on this offering.
`Arlington Road' introduces us to John Farraday (Jeff Bridges) as a professor of Terrorism. In class, he openly questions the effectiveness of the FBI and how it handles cases of domestic terrorism. He points out the Saint Louis Federal Building bombing, which is analogous to the tragedy of Oklahoma City. He tells his students that the FBI, after years of painstaking investigation, pinned all of the blame on just one man. How could one lone person be the instrument of such massive destruction, he asks his class. You can begin to see the seething distaste that he harbors for the FBI. Farraday also takes his class on a field trip to a place called Copper Creek where a fatal and unnecessary confrontation took place between those who lived on the property and federal agents. He explains that the FBI didn't do enough research before convincing themselves that the family living there was stockpiling guns for some future terrorist act. His wife, among several others, is subsequently killed in a gun battle. Sadly, he can never get past this personal tragedy, and it manifests itself into heightened paranoia and a deep suspicion about his new neighbor, Oliver Lang (Tim Robbins).
Lang is quite odd in many ways. He keeps to himself, carries himself as if he had something to hide, and wears a troubled look that's both suspect and menacing. Why does Lang not want Farraday to see his work? Why does Lang keep getting mail that he insists have been addressed to the wrong person? Why was Lang in Saint Louis right around the time the Federal Building was bombed? At this point, which is about 45 minutes into the film, the movie moves away from its philosophical stance and begins to take shape as a psychological drama. Can Farraday convince anyone that Lang is dangerous (including a friend who works for the FBI and his current girlfriend)? What's Lang's real story?
The movie appropriately takes its time in painting Farraday as a man passionate about his opinions and consumed with suspicion. I also enjoyed Joan Cusack, who plays Oliver's wife. She's sweet on the outside, but there's a scary beast within and she projects just the perfect facial expressions that make her absolutely eerie. What did strike me as odd was that near the end, the movie unexpectedly kicks it up two notches, like some thoroughbred rounding the final corner and sprinting towards the finish line. I enjoyed the unexpected ending that it led us to, but after establishing its pace, it finally succumbs to a bloody fistfight, car chases, and a whopping explosion. But let me say once again that this is a fair offering. Nonetheless, I'd still probably choose to enter the classroom on the left or on the right.
Grade: B-
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