|
While not "disturbing" as some describe it,
"Arlington Road" is a superb thriller with a terrific cast of
actors. However, it is not unflawed.
The first scene starts off in a rather surreal manner, with
intentionally blurry and disjointed photography and weird sound
effects. The basic effect is that a young boy is stumbling down
a suburban street, in shock, with a severely burned, bloody
arm.
Jeff Bridges plays Michael Faraday, a college professor whose
FBI agent wife was killed in a mistaken terrorist raid. He is
now raising his young son Grant alone, but he has a new girlfriend,
Brooke.
Michael appears in the first scene, scoops up the boy with the
bloody arm, and takes him to the emergency room. Later, the
boy's parents show up at the hospital, a seemingly nice couple
with two other children. They live right across the street from
Michael.
When their son, Brady, recovers from the bloody arm incident,
he befriends Grant. But Brady's father, Oliver Lang(Tim Robbins),
strikes Michael as just a little strange: an architectural engineer,
he claims to be working on a shopping mall. But Michael, who
knows nothing about architecture, notices plans that seem to
be different from your usual shopping mall (at least in his
opinion).
So begins the paranoid snooper's story. This is where "Arlington
Road" loses some of its credibility. How anyone could be so
stupid is beyond me. Michael repeatedly snoops around Oliver's
home, and delves into his past history. He also is repeatedly
caught snooping by one of the Langs and has to come up with
quick excuses. Still, he uncovers some suspicious facts about
Oliver's past, and begins to suspect that Oliver is a terrorist
plotting to blow up a building.
I myself have done quite a lot of snooping through people's
stuff (and unfortunately, I never discovered anything incriminating
about anyone). In fact, I've never really found anything even
remotely interesting. But I've never been caught either. You'd
think Michael would have more sense.
Michael's girlfriend Brooke is no smarter. First she argues
with Michael, insisting that his theory is crazy, which it does
appear to be. Later, she spies on Oliver and notices him making
some suspicious deliveries. So she calls Michael and leaves
a message on his answering machine to the effect that she agrees
with him, Oliver is probably a terrorist. And then Oliver's
wife (Joan Cusack) walks up right behind her. (If Brooke were
smart, she wouldn't have left such a specific message on a machine
- duh.) I could really give these people some tips on being
sneaky!
But it just so happens that Michael's paranoia is justified,
and he soon discovers that he's caught up in a huge anti-government
terrorist plot.
The suspense and action scenes were excellent, although one
car chase scene could have been staged better. I enjoyed all
the actors, and "Arlington Road" was well plotted. I was also
impressed by the end - quit reading now if you don't want to
know- in which the bad guys get away with blowing up the federal
building, and Michael is framed. To have the bad guys get away
with it in the end shows good originality in a movie. (Perhaps
that's also what some people find disturbing - the bad guys
walking around unchecked.) Despite Michael's ineptness, I found
"Arlington Road" very entertaining.
My rating: 3 stars
Rating : Rated R (For violence and language)
|
