"Arlington Road" would have to rate as one of the most lacklustre thrillers I have seen in the last few years. I don't quite know how this film is holding down a user rating over 7/10.
Jeff Bridges plays Michael Faraday, a suburbanite who lectures on terrorism at the local university. He is a widower who lives with his young son after his FBI agent wife was killed in a siege gone wrong. While driving home one day, he notices a boy walking down the centre of the road. When he stops to investigate, he notices the boy has suffered severe damage to his arm courtesy of a fireworks accident. After rushing him to hospital, Faraday eventually meets the boy's parents who live just over the road from him. Gradually they become friends, but things start to turn sinister when a few shady details of the father's (Tim Robbins) past begin to emerge. Not only that, but Faraday begins to suspect his homely neighbour might be a terrorist bomber, and that he might be planning a local job some time in the not-so-distant future.
The storyline, although it probably sounds promising from the above summary, is strictly by the numbers and completely uninspiring. The plot twists are highly predictable and the characterisation, particularly that of Michael Faraday, is downright unbelievable. Sure, Faraday lectures in terrorism and with the recent death of his wife, it would not be unreasonable for him to be a bit on the paranoid side, but for him to suspect his neighbour is a terrorist because he gets the wrong mail every now and then is just plain ridiculous. It doesn't help that Bridges gives a completely over the top performance as Faraday, a man prone to fits of roaring anger and manic depression. In the end, it's really hard to feel any sympathy for him due to this reason alone. Robbins is better as his creepy neighbour, Oliver Lang, but his character could have been fleshed out a bit more too.
At several points too, the film tries desperately to drum-up suspense by throwing Faraday and his college student girlfriend into increasingly precarious positions. The problem is, they are handled in such a routine manner that you can guess exactly what is going to happen and these situations just turn out to be downright annoying. On a positive note, the ending is certainly not your typical routine Hollywood happy ending, and this is one of the few pluses in the film.
Finally, the one thing that really irritated me about "Arlington Road" was the direction and cinematography. I can't remember the last time I saw a big name film look this bad. The persistent use of shadows (even in broad daylight) and the hazy texture to the images is absolutely not necessary. I assume this camerawork was used to give the film a mysterious aura, but it doesn't and it just makes "Arlington Road" look plain ugly. It would have been far more appropriate to use colour and bright images to act as a contrast to the evil present in the neighbourhood (much like "American Beauty" did). Also, there are far too many close-up shots and quick cuts. At times I felt like I was watching "The Blair Witch Project" rather than a big budget film. There is also an awfully presented slow motion sequence towards the end which I guess was meant to generate suspense, but it is so poorly done and inappropriately timed that I almost ended up laughing.
All in all, I was very disappointed with "Arlington Road". It annoys me that with all the wealth in Hollywood, films this ugly and this poorly scripted are still being produced. Good thing I only payed a few dollars to see it on video. I would have been more than a touch annoyed if I dished out $10 to see this trash at the cinemas.
3.5 / 10
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