Arlington Road (1999)

It's easy to understand why Arlington Road sat on the studio shelf for nearly a year. No, the film isn't awful; rather, it's an extremely edgy and ultimately bleak thriller that offers no clear-cut heroes or villains. In other words, Hollywood had no idea how to sell it. Director Mark Pellington's underrated directorial debut, Going All the Way, suffered the same fate, essentially because the filmmaker's presentation of suburban America often shifts dramatically within the same film. Characters are usually miserable and bordering on meltdown, no situation is straightforward, and things usually end badly. Arlington Road begins as an astute study of suburban paranoia. Michael Faraday (a face-pinched Jeff Bridges, who spends most of the film on the brink of tears) is a college professor who teaches American history courses on terrorism. He's been a conspiracy freak since his wife, an FBI agent, was killed during a botched raid that feels like a thinly fictionalized reference to the Waco tragedy. After saving the life of his next-door neighbor's child, he initially befriends the family (Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack), but soon believes the husband is a terrorist. The first half of the film mocks Faraday: he has no real evidence and is not the most stable of protagonists. Despite the fact that it was government paranoia that got his wife killed, Faraday repeats the same type of behavior. Pellington shifts gears in the second half, however, and for awhile, it seems that the film has simultaneously sunk into a cheap, high-octane brand of Hollywood entertainment and undermined its own point. Arlington Road, though, possesses a stunning ending that's a real gut punch, one that may leave you needing a second viewing to catch all of its smartly executed setup. --Dave McCoy Amazon.com

Awful!

I can't tell you why without revealing a crucial plot twist; however, I can say that everything leading up to the climax suddenly depends on things just happening to work out right. The success of a very intricate plan suddenly becomes dependent on numerous chances that the writer & director must have thought made the plot event more clever. Wrong. May 25, 2008

An Unintentionally Good Film about the "Far-Right"

Everyone have seen "American History X", which "realistically" portrays what I imagine American screenwriters must think life is like for so-called "Extreme Right-wingers", but while that was a feast of Semitical Correctness gone wild, this particular film is actually quite good. The story centres around a college professor, Michael Faraday played by Jeff Bridges, teaching, among other things, a class on "domestic terrorism". Faraday has recently lost his FBI-wife in an incident involving one of the many "militia groups", but where the blame was squarely on the side of the FBI. Hence, he is a bitter man, bearing a grudge against the FBI, but trying to live his life as normal, for the sake of his lonely nine year old son.

After saving the life of the neighbours' son, (the Lang's) he befriends them, and within their family his isolated son finds a new friend in the Lang's son. Eventually, he grows suspicious of his neighbour (Oliver Lang played by Tim Robbins) and his past, and starts to suspect he is in fact a member of the "Far Right" and is plotting an attack on the Federal Government. But unlike most films from the hands of Hollywood, these "extremists" are actually portrayed as normal people with a just cause, not the drooling maniacs we're usually served in every second film, so to speak. As Faraday says himself in one of his classes, most people in American history of any note would today be labelled "terrorists", and would certainly have taken up arms a long time ago, if they were alive today.

Unlike the ending of American History X, which was completely defeatist and meaningless, this one actually ends well for the good people. Sometimes you wonder how a film such as this made it through censorship, but I guess they think we should feel all "horrified" at the idea of someone actually having faith in God, higher causes and wanting to change the future for something better. Well, they failed.

Recommended. 4 stars. March 31, 2008

Intense But Disappointing Movie

This movie keeps the tension fairly high throughout, but the final half-hour gets unrealistically wacky. Although the very surprising ending is dramatic and then.. well, you may find it terriboy unsatisfying. But, I think the whole movie was overdone. I think the actors acted like they were on steroids, especially Jeff Bridges. At the end, you see why they had him acting so hyper, but still, it wasn't realistic. Also, there was more than a whiff of political B.S. -- as you might expect from any movie Tim Robbins is in -- particularly when it comes to painting the FBI as bad guys and the fanatics as right-wingers. This is one of those movies you'll forget about ten minutes after it ends. March 29, 2008

Sugar Coated Punch

Although I rented this movie a while back, I still rememeber most of
the "action". You see, there was once a song, and a line from that song
says, "paranoia strikes deep, into your life it will creep." Well, the
Jeff Bridges character (who teaches terrorism at the local college) starts
wondering about his neighbors. Tim Robbins just happens to be that neighbor. nuff said?
First half of movie drags, but it sets up the second half nicely.
Second half, keep an eye on your neighbor. But, the ending is what is
most dramatic of the whole effort. The ending is what keeps you thinking,
wondering, and instills in us a sense of paranoia that will keep
neighborhoods on their toes for a long time. If you trust your
neighbors, then it's a bad movie. But if there is the slightest doubt,
by all means, an excellent show. February 23, 2008

You never see it coming!

this is a movie you never see coming. It is awesome and everyone should watch it! December 29, 2007

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