The threat of terrorism is as alive as one can imagine. From the recent tragedies at Ruby Ridge and Oklahoma to the World Trade Center bombings, terrorism hangs like a pall of death in our everyday existence. "Arlington Road" makes claim that terrorists may be our own next-door neighbors, ready to pounce at any given moment.
Jeff Bridges stars as a professor of terrorism at George Washington University who teaches his students that the perpetrators of terrorism are wrongly personified by the media - they are not acts done by one man but by a group. He is obsessed by the mere act of terrorism itself, mainly due to his late wife, an FBI agent, who died at the hands of terrorists. Bridges also thinks that his next-door neighbor (Tim Robbins with a steely stare) may be a terrorist. At the beginning of the film, Bridges rescues a child in the streets (played by Mason Gamble), who is bleeding profusely from what appears to be a firecracker accident. The child belongs to Robbins and his wife, played by Joan Cusack.
"Arlington Road" is a strange, sometimes effective film that begins as a character study and quickly becomes an all too fast-paced thriller dependent on far too many implausibilities. Once the shocking ending comes into play, we rethink how the terrorist group managed to fulfill their actions and it becomes all too neat and tidy to have any credence.
Jeff Bridges, one of our most unsung and underappreciated actors, gives a fine, empathetic performance and he gives us a complex view of a man at war with his inner anxieties who can't separate the obsession from his personal life. It is Tim Robbins who overacts, simply staring like a wild-eyed fool making offbeat gestures that undermine any credibility or understanding - what does his character stand for when he commits these atrocious acts? What is he rebelling against? At times, Robbins seems to have drifted in from a cartoon. It doesn't help that his kids appear like aliens from "Village of the Damned."
The female actors are not any better and are vastly underused. Joan Cusack appears more suited to a demented "Addams Family" role than the one given here - her close-ups hinder rather than help. And I am not a big fan of Hope Davis, who nearly ruined the often funny "The Daytrippers" with her blandness and forced smile. Here she has not improved much playing a bland housewife with a forced smile.
"Arlington Road" has its moments of suspense and tension but not enough to overcome a wholly implausible scenario dependent on contrivance rather than plot coherence. The dark ending gives it some weight, but it all rings very hollow. At the end of the road lies an exploitative and shallowly misconceived dead end.
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E-mail me with any questions, concerns or complaints at jerry@movieluver.com or Faust667@aol.com
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