Arlington Road ***
rated R Screen Gems 117 minutes starring Jeff Bridges, Tim Robbins, Joan Cusack, Hope Davis, Robert Gossett, Mason Gamble, Spencer Treat Clark written by Ehren Kruger directed by Mark Pellington
"Arlington Road" is an interesting thriller that lost its core audience because of poor marketing. The film was supposed to have been released in April after a teaser trailer would tell little but promise a lot. However, this was not the case. The film's trailer gave away many secret plot twists and basically told the entire story. Then, the film's release date got pushed back to July 9th when the filmmakers decided that they didnt want the touchy subject matter to coincide with the aftermath of the recent school shootings.
That being said, "Arlington Road" is a movie starring Jeff Bridges as Michael Faraday, a terrorism expert whose wife was killed in a Waco-like shootout. He meets his new neighbors, Oliver(Tim Robbins) and Cheryl(Joan Cusack) Lang, when he rescues their son after he is wounded while using fireworks. Michael and his girlfriend, Brooke(Hope Davis), befriend their neighbors while their kids bond together. However, Michael starts to notice some very disturbing things about the man next door. Is he just imagining these things(because of his terrorism-laced mind) or are they real? I will not give away any more, because hopefully you haven't seen the film's trailer and might be surprised.
Director Mark Pellington made the romantic-comedy "Going All The Way" a couple years ago, and "Arlington Road" has an entirely different filmmaking style. Despite a few formulaic plot contrivances, "Arlington Road" is a cut above most suspense flicks. Jeff Bridges is at his Lebowski-best, while Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack are absolutely haunting as the neighbors from hell. The ending of the film is devastating and very disturbing, as conventionality takes a backseat to the sad, slightly warped version of the truth.
a review by Akiva Gottlieb, The Teenage Movie Critic akiva@excite.com http://teenagemoviecritic.8m.com
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